Proposed Law to Legalize Abortion Roils Mexico City

Mar 30, 06:10 AM

Current Headlines: MEXICO CITY _ Wealthy Mexicans have long gone to Dallas or Houston for medical procedures not available at home _ including abortions. Now, this increasingly liberal capital is likely to legalize the controversial procedure next month, allowing anyone with a bus ticket and a few hundred dollars to end a pregnancy.

The proposed law, now supported by a large majority in the Mexico City legislative assembly, would allow women to have an abortion up to 12 weeks into their pregnancy if having the child "would negatively affect their life project." Currently, Mexican states allow abortion only under circumstances such as rape or to protect the health of the mother.

Supporters of abortion rights say that up to a million illegal abortions every year take the lives of thousands of poor women, often under gruesome circumstances. The new law is crafted along the lines of those in modern democracies with respect for women's choices, they say.

Opponents say Mexico is following its northern neighbor down the slippery slope of moral relativism and abandoning its Catholic tradition, which opposes abortion. Sacrificing unborn children to save an unknown number of women who die during the illegal procedure is not a fair trade-off, they say.

The explosive debate will continue through Holy Week, which culminates in Easter Sunday. Mexico is nominally 90 percent Roman Catholic.

Under the proposed Mexico City law, visiting Americans could also have abortions at private and public clinics, according to lawmakers. Minors could have abortions but, whether Mexican or foreign, they would face a legal review if their parents are opposed.

"You have so many Americans that already go to Mexico for dental work, surgery; if this is laid wide open, I think it's going to allow access for anyone to have abortions," said Aurora Tinajero, director of Spanish Ministry for the Pro-Life Committee of North Texas.

Latin America is generally against abortion, she said, with Mexico City now setting a dangerous precedent.

"The bottom line is abortion is killing, abortion is murder," said Tinajero, whose group is also known as the Respect Life Ministry for the Diocese of Dallas. "It is very troubling for Catholics of Mexican descent to look south and see this is happening."

In Latin America, only Cuba and Guyana have abortion laws similar to the one being considered in Mexico City, according to international abortion rights groups. About 8.5 million people live in the Mexican capital and another 9.5 million in the suburbs.

With more Roman Catholics than any country except Brazil, and with a conservative government in power, Mexican abortion opponents are fighting back with marches and flyers and photos of fetuses prior to the expected mid-April vote.

"They (proponents) 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," Catholic Cardinal Norberto Rivera, the archbishop of Mexico City, said during Sunday Mass. "Laws, whatever they are, are intended to respect life. A law that does not is ungodly."

Abortion opponents fear that _ like Mexico City's recent law recognizing civil unions for gay couples _ allowing legal abortion in the capital could spur similar legislation around the country, ending this nation of 105 million's relatively strict anti-abortion laws once and for all.

Some conservative groups see the push for a more liberal abortion law _ along with trends like growing recreational drug use and falling church attendance _ as a sign that the country is losing its moral moorings.

"We are seeing social decomposition, unfortunately, and attacks on family values," said Jorge Serrano Limon, head of the National Pro-Life Committee. "Abortion is a crime, as is the sexual lewdness we are seeing on TV, along with civil unions."

Serrano Limon said that 40 city legislators support the abortion law and 21 are opposed, which means his group needs to persuade 12 to change their position.

The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution controls the city legislature and the mayor's office. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who has veto power over the city legislature, has said he supports the abortion bill. The party is also pushing a nationwide abortion bill in Congress, where chances of passage are slimmer.

President Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party said he opposes the legalization of abortion and believes the current laws are adequate.

Mexico City legislator Jorge Carlos Diaz Cuervo, a key supporter of the abortion bill for the Alternative party, said Mexicans are increasingly becoming aware that they have individual rights, including a women's right to control her body.

"I think there has been a cultural shift that has to do with the subject of rights," said Diaz Cuervo. "We have been a very hypocritical society; there are things they we have not wanted to acknowledge."

One of those is abortion, he said.

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.

"It's a reality that we cannot continue to hide when it's an issue of public health," Diaz Cuervo said. Officially, 1,500 women have died in the last decade from botched abortions, although that figure is likely to be much higher, he added, since few doctors or victims report their participation in an illegal activity.

Legal abortion also means that there will be fewer unwanted children in the future and a reduction in the social problems associated with them, like crime, Diaz Cuervo said.

Abortion opponent Alejandra Garrido, 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 here (to Mexico City) to get abortions, which is logical, and then more and more states are going to consider something similar," said Garrido, 23, a member of the anti-abortion group Young Citizens for Dignity.

"We are against abortion because we believe the right to life is a fundamental human right," said Garrido, adding that her group also supports better sex education to help young women avoid unwanted pregnancies.

Fliers handed out by Young Citizens for Dignity include one that compares Mexico's strict environmental laws with the capital's plan to legalize abortion during the first trimester.

"Turtle eggs are protected by law," reads the flier, with pictures of turtle eggs in one hand and a tiny baby in another. "Now, unborn children won't be."

Opinion polls show that most Mexico City residents support abortion rights up to the 12-week limit, although national polls show a near-equal split.

___

(c) 2007, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

_____

NEWSCOM PHOTOS can be viewed at http://www.newscom.com/nc/visuals.html (Username: fpnews and Password: viewnc05 allow editors to view photos.) To purchase photos or to get your own Newscom username and password, U.S. and Canadian newspapers, please call Tribune Media (800) 637-4082 or (312) 222-2448 or email to tmssales@tribune.com. Others contact Newscom at (202) 383-6070 or email support@newscom.com. Use search terms: "mexico+abortion"

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.