Mexico City Legislature to Vote Tuesday on Legalizing Abortions There

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 24, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Mexico City Legislature to Vote Tuesday on Legalizing Abortions There Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 24
, 2007

Mexico City, Mexico (LifeNews.com) — Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guyana are the only places in Latin America where abortion is legal and Mexico City would join that group if the city’s legislature approves an abortion measure Tuesday. While unborn children would be protected elsewhere in the country, Mexicans could flock to the nation’s capital city for abortions.

The legislation would legalize abortion within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and force government-financed health clinics to do abortions if low-income women ask for them.

The legislature is seen as likely approving the bill and the mayor of Mexico City is expected to sign off on it.

However, (PAN) Mexico City leader Mariana Gómez del Campo said her party would launch an appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court in the event any bill to legalize abortion is approved.

Jorge Serrano Limon, the head of the anti-abortion group Provida, told the Christian Science Monitor he’s concerned that if abortion is legalized that euthanasia will be next.

"Today it’s abortion; tomorrow it’s euthanasia," he says. "It will be a chain that denigrates Mexican society."

Should the city’s legislature approve the measure legalizing abortion, it would be going against the wishes of a majority of Mexicans.

The polling firm Parametría surveyed 1,200 Mexican adults from March 24 to 27.

It found that 51.3 percent of those polled opposed legalizing abortion while only 30 percent of Mexicans favor legalizing abortion. The rest are undecided.

The polling firm Consulta Mitofsky conducted a previous survey in January and released the results of the poll last month. It showed similar results as only 32.1 percent of those polled said they agreed with abortion.

Breaking the results down by political party, only 30 percent of people who side with the conservative National Action Party (PAN) agree with abortion while just 28.7 percent of those who identify themselves as members of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) back abortion.

The numbers are important because the PRD party is sponsoring the legislation in both the Mexico Congress and the Mexico City legislature.

While the Mexico City measure may pass, PAN President Felipe Calderon is expected to veto the congressional measure.

“I have a personal conviction, and I am in defense of life,” he told a news conference last month. “I have a plain respect for dignity and human life and within this I believe the existing legislation is adequate.”

Mexico City currently allows abortions in cases of rape or incest and when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother while the rest of the nation only allows abortions in cases of sexual abuse.

Marcelino Hernandez, the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, has warned legislators that if they vote for the proposed bill, they would be excommunicated upon the first abortion.

Related web sites:
Comite Nacional Pro Vida – https://www.comiteprovida.org