Mexico has just made history on the issue of abortion. Today, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation endorsed the Mexican Official Norm 046, which obliges the State to take measures to guarantee the interruption of pregnancy in cases of rape in children under 12 years of age.
This, in turn, establishes that minors do not need the permission of their parents or a complaint in order to exercise their right.
In 2009, NOM-046 established that Mexican women have the right to interrupt a pregnancy due to rape in any state of the Mexican Republic. For 2016, a reform was carried out in which the reporting requirement was eliminated and the declaration under protest of telling the truth is considered sufficient to provide the service in any public or private hospital in Mexico.
Today, with nine votes in favor and one against, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation approved that girls under the age of 12 who have been abused may exercise their right to have an abortion without the need to file a prior complaint or have the consent of their parents or guardians.
Arturo Zaldívar, president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, declared that NOM-46 aims to protect minor victims of rape, granting them independence from parental consent or from any other authority to exercise their right to abortion in the best conditions. health and medical.
In these cases, the State must not only not hinder, much less criminalize, abortion, but it also has the obligation to adopt measures that guarantee access to termination of pregnancy in dignified, adequate and equal conditions, and with the promptness that merits taking. the decision in this type of events.
Forcing women or girls to carry a pregnancy derived from rape to term implies a total disregard of their human dignity, autonomy and free development of the personality, as well as being revictimizing and a form of gender violence. No girl can be forced to be a mother, neither by the State, nor by her fathers, mothers or guardians. Here the violation of their rights is more serious, not only because of their status as victims, but also because of their age, which makes it necessary to review the issue from the perspective of minors.