Bliss on Jaffary, ’Abortion in Mexico: A History

[fond noir][blanc]BOOK REVIEW[/blanc][/fond noir]

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Abortion in Mexico: A History
by Nora E. Jaffary

University of Nebraska Press
Series: Engendering Latin America
2024, 163 pp.
(paper), ISBN 978-1-4962-4021-7

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Reviewed by Katherine E. Bliss (Global Policy Center, Center for Strategic and International Studies)

In this new volume, historian Nora E. Jaffary examines how and why legal approaches to abortion in Mexico have changed over time. In particular, she seeks to dispel the idea that the Catholic Church in Mexico, now a leading voice in opposing abortions, has always played that role. Over three chapters covering the colonial era to the present, Jaffary demonstrates that it was only in the last quarter of the twentieth century that the church in Mexico became a prominent abortion rights opponent. Noting that some forms of abortion have been decriminalized in Mexico for a century or more, Jaffary argues that until fairly recently, the church, legal authorities, and medical professionals viewed abortion through the lens of women