The Catholic Church has filed a complaint against the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico, after the publication of a draft decision in which the High Court defends the right to abortion in the first 12 weeks of gestation. This is an action of unconstitutionality against a reform of the Congress of Aguascalientes which reduces the time limit for accessing the legal termination of pregnancy to six weeks, and punishes non-compliance with the prison sentence. The Church, through it Of faithpublished an editorial this weekend in which it asserts that the Court seeks to “eliminate the criminal offense of abortion, that is, to permit the abortion of developing human beings during the nine months of pregnancy”, an assertion which does not hold up when reading the draft proposed by the Supreme Court for its vote.
Legislators of Aguascalientes approved the reform in September 2024, on the proposal of the governor, Tere Jiménez, of the conservative National Action party (PAN), and who openly declared his position in favor of the “right to life”. The amendment contravenes the resolutions of the Court itself and provoked the rejection of civil organizations, which warned of a setback in the recognition of the rights of women and pregnant women. The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and the Federal Executive, even during the six-year term of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, promoted before the Court the action of unconstitutionality against the reform of the Congress of Aguascalientes, dominated by the PAN.
The draft sentence, led by Minister Irving Espinoza, will be discussed on January 6, a choice of date that has not gone unnoticed by the Church. “What a gift they give to the Child Jesus during the Epiphany: the total absence of protection of unborn babies,” says the Catholic editorial. The clergy doubt that the project has “methodological deficiencies” and that it ignores scientific and medical evidence which shows that “human beings develop their nervous systems from the seventh week of gestation.” “This means,” he adds, “that a baby, when it is aborted after the seventh week, feels and suffers what is done to it.”
Minister Espinoza’s project, taking up the arguments put forward by the CNDH, indicates that the reform of the Congress of Aguascalientes “represents a disproportionate reduction” of the 12-week period available to women and pregnant women to legally terminate a pregnancy. This reduction, he asserts, makes the exercise of the right to decide impracticable. Furthermore, the CNDH defends that “in the embryonic phase, it is not possible to affirm that we are in the presence of a human being”, and that, in the sixth week, “the embryo depends for its formation on the person who carries it, that is to say that there is no sufficient probability of autonomous life outside the uterus”.
He adds that before the first 12 weeks of gestation, “sensory and cognitive faculties” have not developed. “Granting a very limited period for legal abortion in Aguascalientes would imply a disproportionate protection of the embryo or fetus and an effective ignorance of the rights of the woman or the person capable of procreating,” states Espinoza’s project. “In fact, more intense protection is granted to the product of conception by shortening the margin for exercising the right to decide. Although a woman is not absolutely criminalized for having an abortion, the planned criminal measure practically reduces the possibility of doing so without legal consequences,” he adds.
The ministers spoke on the issue this Monday, during a breakfast with journalists at the Court’s headquarters. Ministers Loretta Ortiz and Espinoza recalled that abortion has been decriminalized in Mexico for four years, but they warned that several states in the country have failed to harmonize their local legislation in accordance with jurisprudence. Ortiz, who clarified that he could not comment on the substance of the subject, at the risk of prejudging, defended the scientific consensus around 12 weeks of gestation. “We can say that, scientifically, more than the legal argument, there is a difference of six to 12 weeks. More (weeks) is also not possible. 12 weeks is the exact time when the cerebral cortex starts to form. Before you have a zygote. That’s why we left it at 12 weeks,” he said.
Sheinbaum confirms Pope’s visit to Mexico
President Claudia Sheinbaum reported this Monday that Pope Leo XIV had confirmed his visit to Mexico, at the invitation of his government, although the pontiff did not specify a date. The confirmation of the leader of the Catholic Church took place during the telephone call they both had on December 12, the day Mexico celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe, according to the president. EL PAÍS published that the Sheinbaum government has made intense political efforts, through Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez, so that the Pope’s visit can take place as early as 2026.
Much of the peace and anti-violence agenda conceived by López Obrador and pursued by Sheinbaum is based on values present in Catholic thought, such as family, community and solidarity. In the Morenist creed, the promotion of these values could help rebuild a broken social fabric, which encourages violence and extends the domination of organized crime. This Monday, Sheinbaum reaffirmed this commitment with the Pope’s visit. “He told us that it was very important for him, the idea that he has is that the Catholic Church helps, as far as it can and within the framework of the laws of each country, to pacify, to reduce violence,” he said during a conference at the National Palace.
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