Faced with fines and a court order they could no longer ignore, all 35 members of the Yucatán state congress voted Monday to remove a constitutional provision that had protected life from the moment of fertilization — completing the state’s formal alignment with a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that declared the absolute criminalization of abortion unconstitutional.
The unanimous vote amended Article 1 of the Yucatán state constitution, which had guaranteed the right to life “from the moment of fertilization.” That language, ruled invalid by Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), had made Yucatán an outlier even as it moved earlier this year to decriminalize abortion procedurally.
The session was notably quiet. No legislator rose to speak either for or against the measure. The vote was over quickly.
A Fine Forced the Issue
The Yucatán congress had been among the slowest in the country to comply with the SCJN’s mandate — and it paid for the delay. A federal judge fined each of the 35 legislators 26,981 pesos (roughly US$1,350) for failing to meet the court’s deadline. Miguel Ceballos Quintal, the congress’s legal director, was also fined.
Yucatán holds the distinction of being the first state legislature in Mexico to receive such a penalty for dragging its feet on the abortion decriminalization order.
The delay had been driven largely by the PAN, the conservative National Action Party, which had resisted the change on ethical and religious grounds. Once the fines landed, opposition collapsed. All party caucuses ultimately voted in favor.
A Two-Step Process
Monday’s constitutional amendment is the second major step in Yucatán’s shift on abortion law. In April 2025, the state congress had already amended the penal code to decriminalize voluntary abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation — though that reform left the “life from conception” language intact in the constitution, a contradiction the SCJN specifically flagged.
The new text of Article 1 recognizes and guarantees the right to life of “every human being” and pledges to promote conditions for “integral development at all stages,” in line with human rights protections under the Mexican constitution and international treaties — but without the fertilization-to-death framing that had effectively criminalized abortion at the constitutional level.
Yucatán’s constitution now also includes some of the country’s more expansive protections for legal abortion access, including on socioeconomic grounds, a provision shared by only a handful of states.
Where Mexico Stands
Mexico’s wave of abortion decriminalization began in earnest after the SCJN’s landmark September 2021 ruling, which found that the absolute prohibition of abortion was unconstitutional. That decision did not automatically change state laws, but it set a binding precedent obligating judges not to punish anyone for abortion, regardless of local statutes.
Two years later, in 2023, the court went further, removing abortion from the federal penal code entirely. Since then, state legislatures have followed — some willingly, some under court pressure. As of mid-2026, more than 20 of Mexico’s 32 states have decriminalized abortion, at least in the first trimester. Yucatán’s constitutional update closes the last formal legal gap in its own framework.
Women’s rights advocates have marched in Mérida for years demanding exactly this kind of reform, often targeting the state government over its pace of change.
Fast Facts
- Yucatán’s state congress voted unanimously Monday to remove “life from conception” language from the state constitution
- The reform fulfills a high-court mandate that had been pending since the court’s 2021 ruling on abortion
- Each of the 35 legislators was fined 26,981 pesos (approx. US$1,350) for missing the court’s compliance deadline
- Legal director Miguel Ceballos Quintal also received a fine
- Yucatán was the first state legislature in Mexico fined for non-compliance with the abortion decriminalization order
- Yucatán had already decriminalized abortion up to 12 weeks via penal code in April 2025
- More than 20 Mexican states have now decriminalized abortion in at least the first trimester
Sources: La Jornada Maya, NPR, Human Rights Watch, Wikipedia