Mexico City Legislature Approves Bill That Legalizes Abortion During First Three Months' Gestation

The Mexico City Legislature on Tuesday voted 46-19 to approve a bill that would allow pregnant women to obtain a legal abortion during the first three months' gestation, the New York Times reports (McKinley, New York Times, 4/25). Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of the Party of the Democratic Revolution has promised to sign the bill into law, the Los Angeles Times reports (Tobar, Los Angeles Times, 4/25). Under current Mexican law, abortion only is permitted if the life of the pregnant woman is endangered or if the woman has been raped. Lawmakers from the Democratic Revolutionary Party in March proposed the measure. Abortion-rights opponents in the city recently collected the 36,000 signatures necessary to ask the city Legislature for a referendum on abortion if the bill becomes law; however, a referendum is nonbinding on lawmakers (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/24). The antiabortion group Catholic Lawyers has said that the Legislature violated the constitution and city laws by ignoring the petition for a referendum on the issue, the New York Times reports (New York Times, 4/25). Mexican Sen. Santiago Creel of the National Action Party said the party will seek to overturn the measure on the grounds that the country's constitution guarantees the right to life (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/24). Cuba and Guyana are the only countries in the region that allow legal abortions for all women (Hawley, USA Today, 4/25).

Reaction
The Legislature's vote "is a triumph for democracy," Maria Consuelo Mejia of the group Catholics for the Right to Choose said, adding, "It is a triumph for all women, and above all, for the poorest" women in the country. Lilian Sepulveda, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the passage of the bill is "going to make an enormous difference for women in Mexico City in their everyday lives" (Los Angeles Times, 4/25). Sepulveda added that "instead of back alleys, women will be able to go to the doctor's office to get the health services they need." Raffaela Schiavon, executive director of the reproductive rights group Ipas, said that the passage of the bill is "a huge victory." He added, "It could start a chain of similar initiatives in other Mexican states and be an example for other countries" (Ovalle, Miami Herald, 2/25). Marcelino Hernandez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, earlier this month said that if the bill is signed into law, any lawmaker who voted in favor of the measure would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church when the first abortion is performed under the law (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/24). Felipe Aguirre Franco, archbishop of Acapulco, said lawmakers who voted to approve the measure "will get the penalty of excommunication," adding, "That is not revenge, it is just what happens in the case of serious sins" (Bremer, Reuters, 4/25). Mexican Federal Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, an abortion-rights opponent, on Tuesday said there would be nothing to prevent residents of other Mexican states from coming to Mexico City to receive abortions at private and public clinics. He added that the new law likely would allow doctors to establish abortion clinics in the city (Los Angeles Times, 4/25).














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