Mexico's Supreme Court Rules Against Legalization of Abortion up to Birth and Bishops Affirm Life begins at Conception

LifeNews reported that recently, Mexico’s Supreme Court refused a blanket kind of ruling on abortion. This ruling was in response to another by a lower court judge which ordered the state legislature of Vera Cruz to amend its penal code and allow abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. In a 4-1 decision, the Court ruled that the Vera Cruz judge exceeded his authority.

Abortion is currently legal up to the 12th week of gestation only in Mexico City and in the state of Oaxaca. 

 According to Justice Norma Piña, allowing courts to dictate the meaning of laws written by state legislators would be “to fall into judicial activism.” The ruling was an unpleasant surprise for many Westerners (especially Americans) who believe judicial activism is what courts are supposed to do. And of course, progressives expect that as nations such as Mexico develop, they will expand so-called abortion rights and reject what the left-leaning Guardian newspaper called Mexico’s “strong traditions of Catholicism and machismo.”

Over the last decade or so, Mexican states have repeatedly voted to maintain abortion restrictions.

Vatican News reported that in a statement released on 24 July (before the ruling),  Mexico’s Catholic Bishops affirmed the need to protect women, even from the moment of conception.
Bishop Herrera expressed concern that the Supreme Court’s decision could have “a direct impact on the legal protection of the fundamental human right to life, particularly in its early stages.”
Bishop Herrera heads up the Commission for Life of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference and is the Bishop of Nuevo Casa Grandes.

“We affirm, according to scientific evidence, that human life begins at the moment of conception.” 

 Bishop José Jesús Herrera Quiñones made that affirmation in view of the case set to come under review on 29 July by Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice.

 “Abortion provides no support for the woman, who can even become a victim in her mother’s womb,” said Bishop Herrera. Mexico’s Bishops, he recalled, recognize that many women need special protection in their material needs, as well as their physical and mental health. The dignity of life, he said, begins at conception and extends throughout life, and must be protected especially in the case of women in vulnerable situations.
Edited from LifeNews and VaticanNews