Will U.S. Women Take Advantage of Mexico’s ‘Watershed’ Abortion Law?

Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that it’s now unconstitutional to punish abortion as a crime, reports NPR. The landmark ruling that clears the way for the legalization of abortion across the country. Eight of 11 justices voted to revoke a law in the state of Coahuila that punished women with up to three years in prison for having an abortion, even in cases of rape. The ruling will impact millions of women in the country’s 32 states. “Today is a historic day for the rights of all Mexican women,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar, “It is a watershed in the history of the rights of all women, especially the most vulnerable.”

Paula Avila-Guillen, executive director of the Women’s Equality Center in Washington, D.C., called Mexico’s decision a bright spot in the fight to protect women’s reproductive rights around the work. It comes just days after Texas enacted their ban of abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Avila-Guillen suggests that some American women may benefit from Mexico’s new law, as Coahuila boarders Texas. “Could the safest way for Texan women to have access to a safe, legal abortion soon be to make their way to Mexico?” she asks.