Laws regarding abortion access

Abortion laws in Mexico City, Mexico

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Marginally related note:

Ironically, the U.S. has a guideline called the "Mexico City policy. It prohibits financial aid to international family planning organizations if they provide abortion counseling, or provide abortions, or which advocated abortion access in even one country.

Overview:

The population of Mexico City and suburbs is about 18 million; the population of Mexico is about 105 million. The country is nominally 90% Roman Catholic. Against overwhelming opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, lawmakers in Mexico City created a law on 2007-APR-24 that allows abortions on request for pregnant women in their first trimester: -- i.e. less than 12 weeks from conception -- if having the child "... would negatively affect their life project." Women who are near the first trimester limit will be given abortions immediately; those whose pregnancies are less advanced will have to wait until after the rules are formally published.

Whether a person regards this development as a major victory for women, or as a tragic murder of hundreds of thousands of pre-born children annually depends largely on when the individual believes that human life becomes a human person. Almost everyone regards ova and spermatozoon as living entities containing human DNA, and thus being two forms of human life. But there is no consensus on when this human life becomes a human person whose life should be protected.

Status of abortion in Mexico, Central America, and South America:

TruthOut reported:

"A study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico estimates there are half a million to 1 million illegal abortions a year - in doctor's offices for those who can afford it, and through self-induced wounds or toxic teas for those who cannot." ₁

It is generally acknowledged that more than 2,000 die annually from the procedure. Before the bill was passed, abortions in Mexico city were only available when the woman's life was endangered by the pregnancy. In the rest of Mexico, abortion was only permitted in case of rape. Many women crossed the border into the U.S. and had their abortions in Dallas or Houston, TX.

TruthOut continued:

"Alejandra Garrido, a member of the anti-abortion group Young Citizens for Dignity, 23, said Mexico City's law will draw young women from all over the country and pressure more states to allow abortion on demand. Young women are going to come ... [to Mexico City] to get abortions, which is logical, and then more and more states are going to consider something similar. We are against abortion because we believe the right to life is a fundamental human right."

The Feminist Majority Foundation reported that:

Across South America, according to the United Nations, four million women have illegal abortions annually. As of 2007-APR, abortion is legal only in three countries: Barbados, Cuba, and Guyana. However, Columbia and Uruguay are considering changes to their legal prohibitions of abortion. Cardinal Rubiano, the Archbishop of Bogota, Columbia, has asked Christians to pray that abortion will not be legalized in his country. He said:

"The loss of Colombia will substantially weaken the pro-life fabric of all Latin America. What begins as a small hole will end as a huge tear allowing much evil to come in." ₃

In advance of the change in the law:

Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter on APR-20 to to the bishops of Mexico noting:

"In this Easter period, we are celebrating the triumph of life. ... I exhort you to protect this great gift firmly, the right to life of everyone from the first instant of conception, in the face of whatever opponents from the culture of death." ₃

On 2007-APR-21, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family and its top anti-abortion campaigner, arrived in Mexico to try to change the politicians' voting intentions.

Law approved:

On 2007-APR-24, the Mexico City legislative assembly voted 46 to 19, with one abstention, to legalize abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy. This followed "seven hours of tense debate over the question of who has more rights - a woman or fetus." ₄ The law had specified a one to three year jail sentence for all women who have an abortion. The clause now applies for second and third trimester abortions only.

Most of the opposition to the liberalization of the abortion law came from the Roman Catholic Church.

Reactions to the new law:

"The decriminalization that has been approved is a disgrace but we have not lost the battle. We will not recognize this law and we will go the the clinics and hospitals where abortions are practiced to denounce them and try to keep them from carrying them out." ₄

"They say it's a problem of a woman's right over her body, and they put to one side the right of aborted boys and girls over their bodies. ... Laws, whatever they are, are intended to respect life. A law that does not is ungodly."

"We are seeing social decomposition, unfortunately, and attacks on family values. Abortion is a crime, as is the sexual lewdness we are seeing on TV, along with civil unions [for same-sex couples]." ₁

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare the above report in the year 2007, and update it since. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Laurence Iliff, "Proposed law to legalize abortion roils Mexico City," TruthOut,2007-MAR-30, at: http://www.truthout.org/
2. "Mexico City Moves to Liberalize Abortion Laws," Feminist Majority Foundation, 2007-MAR-14, at: http://www.feminist.org/
3.  Malcolm Moore and Jerry McDermott. "Mexico City legalises abortion," Telegraph.co.uk, 2007-APR-27, at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
4. "Mexico City passes abortion law," The Unapologetic Mexican, 2007=APR-25, at: http://www.theunapologeticmexican.org/
5. Malcolm Moore in Rome and Jerry McDermott, "Catholics to appeal Mexico City's abortion law," Telegraph.co.uk, 2007-APR-27, at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/\