Mexico’s Path to Legalizing Abortion

The Daily

• Episode: Mexico’s Path to Legalizing Abortion
• Website: The Daily
• Feed URL: http://rss.art19.com/the-daily
• Duration: 00:21:54
• Published: 2021-09-15 11:50

In a major turn of events in Mexico, which has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world, its Supreme Court last week decriminalized abortions.

The Supreme Court ruling is a milestone for Mexico’s feminist movement. But change might not come quickly: Abortion law is mostly administered at the state level in Mexico, much of the country remains culturally conservative, and many Mexican medical workers are morally opposed to abortion.

In a country where polls indicate most people don’t believe that abortion should be legal, what effect will the ruling have in practice?

Guest: Natalie Kitroeff, a correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The Supreme Court’s decision to decriminalize abortion set a legal precedent for the nation. But applying it to all of Mexico’s states will be a long path. Read this article in Spanish here.
• Abortion may no longer be a crime, but a battle looms over whether public hospitals will be required to offer the procedure. Read this article in Spanish here.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.