The SCJN invalidates a law that protected life from conception in Aguascalientes.

 

Mexico City, October 11.—The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) unanimously invalidated the so-called “right to life,” included in the Aguascalientes Constitution last year . To date, 16 states in the country still maintain similar provisions in their fundamental laws.

The Supreme Court removed from the national legal system the section that defined the human person "from conception to natural death" in Article 2 of the Constitution of that entity.

The rapporteur, Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá, explained that state legislative powers cannot define the notion of person by altering the founding parameters of human rights.

"The Congress of the aforementioned entity also exceeded its constitutional powers by protecting life from conception, as this poses a significant risk to the constitutional and conventional rights of women, in particular," González added.

The SCJN's decision was based on precedents from similar cases, in which the justices also declared the invalidity of the "right to life" contained in the constitutions of Sinaloa, Nuevo León, and Veracruz. In supporting González's proposal, Justice Javier Laynez explained that the state legislature cannot define the meaning of "personhood," as that is part of the legal guarantees , which can only be limited by the federal legislature or through international conventions.