Mexico’s Abortion Rights Gap: Laws vs Funding

Mexico — While 24 Mexican states have decriminalized abortion, the right is not yet enshrined in eight states, and federal spending on providing the procedure in health centers ranked among the lowest state expenditures over the past decade, totaling less than 15 million pesos.

This landscape is the result of a social struggle spanning at least three decades. Gradually, states across Mexico have dismantled legal structures that criminalized abortion and have begun to allocate federal funds to guarantee medical care for those who choose to terminate a pregnancy before three months of gestation.

A Decade of Legislative Shifts

A historic turning point occurred in 2007 when the former Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, now the Mexico City Congress, approved legal abortion, known by the Spanish acronym ILE, up to 12 weeks of gestation in the nation's capital. Another milestone followed on September 25, 2019, when Oaxaca decriminalized the procedure.

Over the next several years, a wave of states joined the movement: Hidalgo, Veracruz, Coahuila, Baja California, and Colima in 2021; followed by Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Guerrero, and Baja California Sur in 2022; and Aguascalientes in 2023. The most recent additions to Mexico's so-called "green landscape" were the decriminalization of abortion in Campeche, Yucatán—partially—and Tabasco this year. Furthermore, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has declared abortion a crime in Chihuahua.

Minimal Financial Commitment

Despite this legislative progress, the amount spent on "safe abortion" in the past decade is among the lowest in the Mexican state. The total expenditure does not represent even one percent of the cost of Playa Espíritu, a complex in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, designed to attract investment which failed to sell any of its 5,000 lots. It is also equivalent to just 1.15 percent of the cost of the Estela de Luz monument on Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City. The amount would be sufficient only to equip a small government office, which, according to costs reviewed by Compras MX, would cost between 10 and 20 million pesos.

According to a review of historical contracts on the former Portal of Obligations and Transparency and CompraNet, now Compras MX, that contain the terms "Legal Termination of Pregnancy," "abortion," or "safe abortion" in their titles, the majority of spending between 2015 and 2025 has been directed toward media campaigns, hospital infrastructure, the acquisition of medical equipment, and staff training.

The trajectory of these expenditures in the health sector shows that the concept of "safe abortion" was not mentioned in public procurement jargon before 2021. That year, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled that no woman in Mexico could be imprisoned for having an abortion. The court also ordered Coahuila, where a constitutional challenge had been filed, to change its Penal Code. This ruling was the first step toward other states removing penalties for terminating a pregnancy from their legal frameworks.

Also in 2021, the Ministry of Health issued a public policy for "safe abortion" for the first time through the Center for Gender Equity and Reproductive Health. This organization contributed to the spending this decade with two radio campaigns: one aired in 2021 at a cost of 344,657 pesos, and another the following year costing 219,185 pesos.

Limited State-Level Spending

On Sunday, September 28, individual women, feminist groups, and people capable of bearing children commemorated Safe Abortion Day. The demands, as in past years, were once again for safe and free abortions, as well as decriminalization in all Mexican penal and state codes.

This commemoration occurs against a backdrop where, over the past decade, clandestine abortion has become the third leading cause of death among pregnant women, with more than 30 deaths each year.

The "green wave" of decriminalization has yet to achieve a consistent base of public expenditure. Of the states that have approved ILE, only Oaxaca, Colima, and Aguascalientes appeared to have expenditures related to safe abortion from 2015 to 2025 in the media's review.

In Oaxaca, the government spent 339,984 pesos on a contract that ran from August 3 to December 31, 2022, for staff training with the company Mofag AC, to guarantee this right for adolescents and victims of sexual violence. It then paid for another similar course to reinforce what was learned with Hermas, Valores y Negocios, from September 1 to December 31, 2022.

In Colima, the government invested 51,120 pesos in 2021 for the rehabilitation and installation of infrastructure for safe abortion spaces at the Regional University Hospital.

Aguascalientes, for its part, purchased medical and laboratory equipment for a safe abortion program for 159,458 pesos in 2022. The majority of these expenditures were executed by the Ministry of Health.