Regulatory Traffic Light for Abortion in Mexico
Last updated: April 30, 2026
Designed by GIRE, the Regulatory Traffic Light for Abortion in Mexico is a quantitative tool for evaluating and comparing the legal frameworks regulating abortion in Mexico in the current context of abortion liberalization (i.e., the process of legal and policy reform through which laws move toward reducing punishment and broadening legal recognition of abortion as an essential health service connected to reproductive justice). To determine the federal score and the score for each federal entity, this tool considers whether the following elements are in place:
- public policies on voluntary induced abortion;
- reforms to health regulations that include abortion;
- decriminalization of abortion in criminal codes; and
- grounds for exclusion from criminal liability or non-punishability in criminal codes that facilitate access to abortion services.
In this regard, of the eleven legal grounds for abortion currently in force across different federal entities, only three were taken into account. These are those grounds that, based on GIRE’s experience, have enabled more effective case accompaniment: health, rape, and denial of the service by an authority.
Regulatory Traffic Light for Abortion in Mexico
Click on each entity to see its position on the list.
| Entity | Ranking |
|---|---|
| Michoacán | 1 |
| Guerrero | 2 |
| Chihuahua | 3 |
| Coahuila | 4 |
| Tlaxcala | 5 |
| Baja California Sur | 6 |
| San Luis Potosí | 7 |
| Colima | 8 |
| Sinaloa | 9 |
| Cd. de México | 10 |
| Oaxaca | 11 |
| Baja California | 12 |
| Hidalgo | 13 |
| Zacatecas | 14 |
| Campeche | 15 |
| Jalisco | 16 |
| Veracruz | 17 |
| Nayarit | 18 |
| Yucatán | 19 |
| Chiapas | 20 |
| Estado de México | 21 |
| Puebla | 22 |
| Quintana Roo | 23 |
| Tabasco | 24 |
| Federal | 25 |
| Morelos | 26 |
| Durango | 27 |
| Nuevo León | 28 |
| Aguascalientes | 29 |
| Tamaulipas | 30 |
| Guanajuato | 31 |
| Querétaro | 32 |
| Sonora | 33 |
Map: created by GIRE based on the legislative review as of April 2026.
Methodology
A rubric consisting of nine categories was designed in order to calculate the final score for each federal entity and for the federal level. Each category has a specific weight, determined by GIRE based on the current context of decriminalization, as well as on changes to the regulatory framework on abortion in Mexico. The categories and the weight assigned to each are listed below.
| Category | Definition | Assigned Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Total decriminalization of abortion | A scenario in which abortion is not classified as a crime in the criminal code for women or people with the capacity to gestate. | 7 |
| Partial decriminalization of abortion | Abortion decriminalized when performed at the request of the woman or person with the capacity to gestate and within a minimum time frame of 12 weeks. | 4 |
| Judicial order | Decriminalization of abortion ordered by judiciary (at either state or federal level). | 3 |
| Health Law reform | Local Health Law amended in order to guarantee and provide access to legal termination of pregnancy. | 2 |
| LTP Program | A public program for legal termination of pregnancy is in place. | 0.5 |
| Health grounds | Criminal Code specifies that abortion is decriminalized when there are risks to the health of the pregnant person. | 1 |
| Grounds of rape | Criminal Code specifies that abortion is decriminalized in cases of rape. | 1 |
| Grounds related to denial by an authority | Criminal Code specifies that abortion is decriminalized when medical or nursing personnel deny the service in cases permitted under local regulations. | 1 |
| Decriminalization for health care personnel or those who assist in an abortion | The provision of abortion services is not punishable by imprisonment or suspension from professional practice. | 0.75 |
| Imprisonment for having an abortion | Number of years of imprisonment imposed on women and people with the capacity to gestate as a penalty for abortion. | -0.25 |
In order to determine the scores, both local and federal regulatory frameworks are reviewed. If any of the grounds or sanctions listed are provided for in a criminal code, the corresponding score is assigned. A minimum period of 12 weeks was established for abortion to be considered decriminalized, as since the reform of abortion in Mexico City’s Criminal Code, the Supreme Court has deemed this term reasonable. In addition, in federal entities where abortion has already been decriminalized, the assessment considers whether their Health Law has been amended to recognize and guarantee access to legal termination of pregnancy (LTP), as well as whether there are local public safe abortion programs in place for women or people with the capacity to gestate who request the service. Judicial decisions declaring the criminalization of abortion in the Criminal Code unconstitutional and ordering the corresponding legislature to amend those provisions were also taken into account. The first federal entities to receive this score were Aguascalientes (Supreme Court order) and Jalisco and Nayarit (Collegiate court order). Finally, GIRE considered it important to include—as a positively scored category—the non-imprisonment or suspension from professional practice for health care personnel or others who assist in the provision of abortion, since this type of criminalization undermines the existence of environments conducive to such care.
In Mexico, regulatory and public policy tools are in place and enforceable nationwide. For example, throughout the country it is possible to access abortion in cases of rape, in accordance with the provisions of the General Victims Law (LGV, for its Spanish initials) and Official Standard NOM-046-SSA2-2005 (NOM-046). There are also the Technical Guidelines for the Provision of Safe Abortion Care in Mexico, which incorporate the most up-to-date international clinical standards in this area. For instance, these guidelines identify the most appropriate methods for each gestational age, outline the obligations of health care personnel in providing care, and specify that services must be delivered with a gender perspective and grounded in the human rights of service users. This legal and regulatory framework is in force across the country and therefore does not function as a comparative standard among federal entities. However, GIRE decided to take it into account as positive points, as it represents a significant advance both in the regulation of abortion and in the incorporation of international clinical and human rights standards into abortion care. In other words, although there is no specific category for evaluating regulatory frameworks, three points were added (at both the federal level and across all federal entities) to the overall score based on their respective frameworks.
In states where abortion has been decriminalized without establishing a gestational time limit (Guerrero, Coahuila, Michoacán, Chihuahua, and Tlaxcala), categories related to specific legal grounds for abortion were added to states’ scores, even though these grounds are not explicitly included in their criminal codes. This is because, once the crime of abortion is struck from the criminal code, women and other people with the capacity to gestate may access abortion under any circumstances (including, but not limited to, those traditionally covered by established grounds). However, it is important to note that penalties imposed on individuals who assist in abortion procedures also represent a barrier to access. This is the case, for example, in Guerrero and Michoacán, where individuals who perform or facilitate abortions after the twelfth week of gestation continue to be criminalized. In the case of the Federal Criminal Code, reform by Congress is still pending, and it is still unclear what form decriminalization will take. For this reason, while these states’ compliance with the judiciary’s order to decriminalize abortion remains pending their score is lower than that for decriminalization based on gestational time limits. Nevertheless, according to the Supreme Court’s decision in Action of Unconstitutionality 148/2017, access to induced abortion at the request of the pregnant person must be guaranteed at least during the first twelve weeks of gestation, and no gestational limit may be imposed in cases of pregnancy resulting from rape.
With regard to sanctions, only those established for women or people with the capacity to gestate are assigned a point value. Given that the maximum penalty established in the country’s criminal codes is six years of imprisonment, the highest possible score in this category is −1.5. This factor is only considered when the local or federal legislation analyzed does not include either partial or total decriminalization of abortion (twelve weeks or more). For example, although the Criminal Code for the Federal District classifies abortion after twelve weeks of gestation as a crime (with a maximum penalty of six months of imprisonment), this category was scored as non-existent (0) in the scoring rubric. This decision was made to acknowledge that, although a time limit is established, abortion is nevertheless decriminalized, at least partially.
Based on the above, the maximum score that an entity can achieve is 13.75, while the minimum score is −1.5. These values are then normalized in order to obtain a final score on a scale from 0 to 100, where 13.75 corresponds to 100 and −1.5 corresponds to 0.
Download the data here.
