A Mexican Supreme Court decision to end the federal ban on abortion extended a regional trend of increasing access to the procedure but left in place a patchwork of varying state restrictions.
The high court on Wednesday threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion, in a ruling that will require the federal public health service to offer the procedure to anyone who requests it. That will mean access for millions of Mexicans since the social security service and other federal institutions provide health care to most people who work in the formal economy.
The changes in Latin America stand in sharp contrast to increasing restrictions on abortion in parts of the United States. Some American women were already seeking help from Mexican abortion rights activists to obtain pills used to end pregnancies.