The decriminalisation of abortion in Mexico City: how did abortion rights become a political priority?
Sánchez Fuentes, Mara Luisa Paine, Jennifer Elliott-Buettner, Brook
Sánchez Fuentes, Mara Luisa
Paine, Jennifer
Elliott-Buettner, Brook
Citations
Altmetric:
Titre
Publication date
2008-07-01
Document type
Journal article
Pages
15
Advisors
Editor(s)
Other Contributors
Affiliation
ePub Date
Submitted date
Local subject classification
MeSH
Country
Collections
Description
In the last decade, there has been a clear tendency toward liberalising abortion laws at the international level. In April 2007, this trend reached the Federal District of Mexico City. Landmark legislation decriminalised abortion on demand up to 12 weeks of gestation. In a region where abortion is still legally proscribed and stigmatised to the detriment of women's health, lives, and rights, what explains Mexico City's historic decriminalisation of abortion? How and why did this issue become a political priority? To analyse this question, we propose applying a framework (developed by Jeremy Shiffman and Stephanie Smith) on the generation of political priorities for global health initiatives to the case study of the decriminalisation of abortion in Mexico City. We find that such an analysis of the Mexico City process, using Shiffman and Smith's four categories, combined with our perspective as NGO activists, offers a compelling and comprehensive explanation of this historic advance toward the recognition of women's abortion rights.
This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis. For the full table of contents for this and previous issues of this journal, please visit the <a href="http://www.genderanddevelopment.org">Gender and Development</a> website.
Language
English
Other Titles
Abstract
Citation
Journal
Gender & Development
Journal Theme
Reproductive Rights: Current challenges
Volume
16
Issue
2
Research Unit
Table of contents
Series
ISSN
1355-2074
EISSN
1364-9221