Mexico City (AP) — Susana Duenas couldn’t believe the news. The Mexican Supreme Court has decided that abortion is not considered a crime. A 38-year-old woman from central Mexico spent six and a half years in prison on suspicion.
The court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that some of the laws of the northern border states of Coahuila, which criminalize abortion, are unconstitutional. This decision immediately forces judges across the country to consider the case with that decision in mind. And in Mexico, there are thousands of unsolved proceedings against women accused of illegal abortions.
Dueñas comes from the conservative state of Guanajuato, one of the 28 states that still bans abortion, with a few limited exceptions.
“It was touching to think that there would be no (more) women like us,” said Duenas, who was imprisoned for an abortion. She was one of nine Guanajuato women released from prison in September 2010. This was not because the state declared innocence, but because the sentence was shortened with the support of activist organizations.
Duenas was 19 years old in 2004 and said he felt something was wrong with him, so he went to the bathroom and then to the hospital. She said she had a miscarriage, but hospital workers accused her of trying to end her pregnancy and called the police.
Two detectives stood at the foot of her bed until she was detained. She was later convicted of murder by a judge and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She said Selmate had bullied her in prison on suspicion.
Experts say Tuesday’s decision will not immediately make legal abortion available across Mexico. The Roman Catholic Church remains a powerful element, especially in the more conservative states.
Currently, only four Mexican states, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Hidalgo, allow abortion in most situations.
On Wednesday, Mexican bishops said the Supreme Court’s ruling showed a “dangerous and disproportionate contrast” between advocacy for women’s rights and fetal rights. Anti-abortion groups demonstrated in downtown Mexico City, projecting images of the fetal and beating sounds on the walls of the Supreme Court building.
Verónica Cruz, director of the non-governmental organization The Free, which fought to free Dueñas and other women, estimated that it could take another five years to change criminal law from state to state.
Currently, no woman has been imprisoned for an abortion in Mexico, but there are about 4,600 unsolved cases nationwide, Cruz said.
Chief Justice Arturo Sardival said Wednesday that public defenders would be available to defend these women. Cruz said the most useful step was simply to close the case.
The journey to this moment began almost a century ago in the 1930s, when anthropologist and feminist Marta Lamas wrote in the 2009 Nueva Socialedad magazine when the state was proposed to regulate abortion. Another major impetus for decriminalizing abortion in Mexico continued in the 1970s.
However, it was in 2007 that Mexico City became the first jurisdiction to legalize abortion. By that time, Dueñas had already been in prison for three years and was more than 200 miles away from the capital.
Critics of the capital’s move to legalize abortion have challenged, but the Supreme Court has ruled that it is more conservative and constitutional than current courts.
Lawyers and judges were trained to be more oriented towards human rights and gender issues as constitutional amendments promising greater human rights continued and the issue of murder was criticized by international human rights institutions.
Tuesday’s decision was the result of a proceeding in 2017 by then-Federal Attorney General Raul Cervantes, who challenged Coahuila law as unconstitutional.
From her home in Santa Teresa, Guanajuato, she said, “How wonderful it was to share our experience after years of fighting.” “Women and their rights must be respected.”
The situation of Duenas’ release still plagues her because she was not exempt from criminal liability. At that time, her priority was to win the release as soon as possible. Therefore, her lawyer pursued commutation rather than convicting him.
Now she wants her name to be cleared. “I want them to say they made a mistake,” she said.
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AP writer Christopher Sherman contributed to this report.
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