Civil society organizations and national and local feminist collectives are demanding that the Durango State Congress decriminalize abortion and comply with court orders to reform the local Penal Code.
From the legislative building, activists held a press conference in which they urged the representatives to heed the ruling issued by a federal court.
On July 18, 2025, the Second Collegiate Court of the Twenty-Fifth Circuit ruled on Amparo Appeal 116/2023, filed by Sí Hay Mujeres en Durango (Yes, There Are Women in Durango) and the Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), with the support of REDefine Durango and local activists.
In its ruling, the court declared unconstitutional the articles that absolutely prohibit voluntary abortion in the Durango Penal Code and ordered the local Congress to reform the penal legislation.
This progress is part of a legal strategy promoted by civil organizations and feminist collectives since the Supreme Court ruling in the Coahuila case in September 2021, with the goal of eliminating the crime of abortion from the country’s penal codes and recognizing it as an essential health service accessible to pregnant women, trans men, and non-binary people to exercise their reproductive autonomy.
The current 70th Legislature of the Congress of Durango was officially notified of the court ruling on September 5, 2025, so the deadline to comply with the mandate expired on December 15 of the same year, at the end of the ordinary session period. However, the reform to the Penal Code was not carried out.
The organizations recalled that this is not the first attempt to advance this issue in Durango. In September 2021, organized women presented the first popular initiative in Mexico driven by civil society, supported by more than 7,000 citizen signatures.
“This is a historical debt owed to the women and people with the capacity to gestate in Durango. Multiple opportunities have been presented to decriminalize abortion; even in the previous legislature, an initiative was withdrawn to allow our popular initiative to advance to the plenary session, but as we know, the result was negative,” said María Hernández of Redefine Durango.
During the conference, it was emphasized that the Congress has the constitutional obligation to legislate under the principle of secularism of the State, established in Article 40 of the Federal Constitution and reaffirmed in Article 60 of the local Constitution.
The collectives pointed out that respect for the secular State is fundamental to guaranteeing human rights, comprehensive health, and reproductive autonomy, as it allows for making decisions free from moral or religious interference.
“As Catholic feminists, we recognize that religion is a factor in this debate. However, contrary to popular belief, the Catholic Church is not monolithic; its members are diverse. Within this framework, the members of Congress must make decisions not based on personal moral beliefs, but guided by secular ethics and the democratic values to which they have committed themselves as public representatives of a pluralistic and diverse citizenry,” stated Maribel Luna of Catholics for the Right to Decide.
Julieta Hernández Camargo, a member of Sí Hay Mujeres en Durango (Yes, There Are Women in Durango), explained that although there are currently no women sentenced for having abortions in the state, the existing criminalization generates fear and inhibits access to health services.
“The fact that it is in the Penal Code generates fear both in women who need access to abortion services and in the doctors who perform them,” she affirmed.
For his part, Francisco Cué of GIRE México (GRI Mexico), emphasized that much of the progress in the country has been achieved through the courts.
“Twenty-four of the 32 federal entities have decriminalized voluntary abortion; ten of them did so in compliance with court orders, such as Coahuila, Chihuahua, and recently Tlaxcala, following rulings in which the Supreme Court declared the provisions criminalizing abortion unconstitutional,” they stated.
The organizations also emphasized that abortion should be addressed as a public health issue. The World Health Organization recognizes it as an essential service and recommends its decriminalization and the elimination of barriers that hinder access. They indicated that in contexts where legislation is more flexible, complications from unsafe abortions are lower, as is the case in Mexico City, where no maternal deaths from unsafe abortions are recorded in public facilities.
Finally, they denounced that for years they have fulfilled the State’s obligations by disseminating information, providing support, and offering care to women and pregnant people.
Source: proceso
