Mexico Supreme Court Continues Hearing Case on Mexico City Abortion Law
RSS Newsfeed 
Email article
Printer friendly
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 2, 2008
Mexico City, Mexico (LifeNews.com) — The Mexico Supreme Court continues holding hearings on a lawsuit seeking to overturn the new law in Mexico City allowing abortions up to 12 weeks into pregnancy. Pro-life advocates presented petitions from hundreds of women who said they regretted their abortions.
The nation’s high court held the most recent hearing on May 23 and 15 legislators and leaders of pro-life groups appeared, according to a California Catholic Daily newspaper report.
They heard arguments that provisions added to the Mexico Constitution in 1997 provide nationality to all people, including "the newborn and the conceived person.”
“In an explicit, direct, clear and undisputable way, this constitutional reform recognized the conceived person to be the subject of rights, therefore, constitutionally, the embryo is a person,” attorney Jaime Inchaurrandieta told the court.
The pro-life advocates told the court they consider the 1997 provisions a reason why the April 2007 law in the federal district of Mexico City invalid.
They also pointed to a 2002 Mexico Supreme Court decision holding that the Constitution protects the rights of unborn children from the moment of conception.
“The product of conception is protected from that moment and can be designated inheritor and donator; it is concluded by this court that the protection of the product of conception’s right to life derives both from the Mexican Constitution and from international treaties and local and federal laws," the court said in that ruling.
The Catholic newspaper also reported that Rocío Gálvez, president of the National Pro-Life Committee, a leading national pro-life group, presented the members of the high court with petitions from 1,600 women who already regret their abortion decisions.
The women had abortions in the hospitals and medical centers in the district and, less than a year later, are already in "pain, suffering and shame" from the abortions.
The newspaper said Galvez also told the court of a 14-year-old girl who has already had three abortions, showing she is using abortion as a method of birth control.
The Mexico Supreme Court has scheduled three more hearings in the lawsuit and has not said when it will issue a ruling.
In April, the court heard from abortion advocates who claimed the unborn child is not a person.
At least one woman has already died from a legal abortion and there could be as many as eight women who have died, the pro-life groups says.
