The State of Mexico Congress approved on September 1, in joint committee session, the bill creating the Law on the Right to Dignified Care, which recognizes care as a right and requires all 125 municipalities to build their own care systems, El Sol de Toluca reported. The next step is a full-chamber vote.

The bill, which consolidates proposals put forward by Governor Delfina Gómez Álvarez and by local legislators, brings existing care programs under a single framework grounded in the principles of shared social and gender responsibility. Representatives from the state DIF and the Comprehensive Care System explained this during the pre-vote analysis session, which Quadratín Estado de México covered alongside the Finance Ministry's endorsement of its budgetary adequacy. The discussion unfolds as caregiving for children, older adults, and persons with disabilities in Mexico continues to fall primarily on families and, within them, disproportionately on women, while local legislatures are beginning to convert it into public policy with its own institutional structure.

The text creates the State of Mexico's Comprehensive Care and Support System, establishes a State Care Council, and sets out a framework of municipal obligations: each local government must install its own care system with participation from health, education, and social development agencies, the DIF, and civil society, and must issue its implementing regulations within 180 business days. La Jornada Estado de México reported that the bill provides services for children, adolescents, and older adults, includes the professionalization of caregivers, and designates October 29 as the State Day of Caregivers. During the debate on financing, Representative Ruth Salinas Reyes of Movimiento Ciudadano called for civil society to have voice and vote in the Council, and proposed replacing the financial sustainability criterion with one of sufficiency. Her financing amendment was rejected by majority vote.

The full vote of the LXII Legislature will determine the next step. If approved, budget programming must begin with fiscal year 2027, and the municipal-obligation care model will stand as a benchmark for other states.

This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.