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 Health & Beauty | May 2007 
Abortion Now Legal in Mexico City
 Erich Adolfo Moncada Cota - OhmyNews.com
Last week the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City voted 46-19 to legalize abortion up to the first trimester of pregnancy. The initiative was the first of its kind in the country and a forefront over other state legislatures. It was voted by five leftist political parties; opposition came from rightist Green and National Action parties.
In 2005 there were almost a million abortions carried out nationwide, according to Mexico's National Autonomous University.(1) At the nation's capital the figure is around 60,000.(2) It constitutes the third major cause of death in poor women (3) mostly because it is practiced in unhealthy, clandestine and unprofessional medical conditions.
Voluntary abortion is punished by imprisonment, law enforcement is rare but a handful of prosecution cases are selective against poor, marginalized women.(4)
Equality in health services has been a pendant signature over the years. An investigation (5) made by the Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), a Mexican NGO on reproductive rights, revealed that in the past six years there were almost 524 women charged for practicing illegal abortions, 28 had been processed and 14 convicted in nine states. Conservative states like Baja California (185), Nuevo Leon (93) and Guanajuato (92), were the majority of those that pressed charges. While 28 processed women came from Baja California and Guerrero, and the 14 convicted ones were exclusively from Sonora. The average prison term ranged from six months to three years.
The new law (6) diminishes sanctions to the mother incurred in abortion after the 12th week and practitioners will be jailed when employing menaces or lies to convince them to disrupt pregnancy. Now women can argue the need to have a procedure when experiencing economic problems, when they get pregnant by human trafficking, prostitution or when the pregnancy alters her life project.
Doctors will have the obligation to inform women about alternatives such as adoption, other welfare and psychological programs available and cannot refuse to practice abortion when ordered to. Only a gynecologist or surgeon doctor ascribed to Mexico City's Health Ministry will be authorized to perform the procedures, soliciting women's expressed written consent.
Doctors are required to inform a Clinical Evaluation Commission about pregnancy interruption to keep medical records and oversight cases. The local government is ordered to implement an aggressive science-based sex education program to reduce unwanted pregnancies and the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases.
Months of a much deserved discussion between progressives and conservatives resulted in a polarized society already agitated by last year's questionable presidential election.
A culture war broke out between left and right when gay civil unions were legalized by the same congressmen, resulting in a fierce confrontation with the Catholic Church. During the abortion debate religious groups, President Felipe Calderon, his wife (7), ruling National Action Party (PAN), and even Pope Benedict XVI came together to "defend life." They ineffectively spent several million dollars in TV ads, WebPages, billboards and weak street protests.
The pro-life media campaign was aggressive. It radicalized anti abortion activists up to a point that several lawmakers received anonymous death threats. Catholic hierarchs menace to excommunicate politicians voting in favor. And PAN members went to the extent of writing a bill to punish termination of pregnancy with 50 years of prison.(8)
Regardless of a series of peaceful but energized protests, pro-choice activists prevailed. Feminist, reproductive NGOs and leftist parties had fewer resources but they were better organized, carrying a clear and balanced discourse to persuade public opinion. They rejected advocating for a wider abortion term, refused to use abortion as a contraceptive method and redefined pregnancy beginning after implantation, contrary to conservative's views.
A 2006 poll made by Ipsos-Bimsa for the Population Council exposed (9) that more than half of Mexicans agreed on allowing abortions depending on the circumstances and just a minority considered taking into account the church's opinion on the matter. Just 29 percent defended abortions due to the woman's decision alone and 54 percent favored criminal punishment. Confrontations will surely escalate in the coming months when discussions begin to legalize euthanasia and drug possession, both at the federal and state levels.
Latin America has some of the world's most restrictive abortion laws (10). The only countries allowing it (11) are Puerto Rico, Cuba, French Guiana and Barbados and Mexico. It's totally banned in El Salvador, Honduras, Saint Martin, the Dominican Republic, in "leftist" Nicaragua and Chile (where it's the No. 1 cause of women's death).
Only Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and 10 out of 32 Mexican states approve therapeutic abortion.(12) Nearly all states allow legal termination in cases of rape, unauthorized artificial insemination, if the mother's health is at risk, or when the inborn is detected to have genetic malformations.
(1) "Casi un millon de abortos al ano, legales e ilegales: UNAM"
(2) "Iniciativa de reforma a los articulos 145 y 147 del Codigo Penal para el Distrito Federal"
(3) "Aborto, tercera causa de muerte materna en Mexico"
(4) "Denuncian persecucion selectiva por abortar"
(5) www.gire.org.mx
(6) Iniciativa que reforma los articulos 145, 146 y deroga el 147 y 148 del Codigo Penal para el Distrito Federal (.DOC file)
(7) Mexico City OKs Abortions
(8) "Pide PAN 50 anos de prision por aborto"
(9) "Ponderan causales medicas para apoyar el aborto"
(10) En Latinoamerica, las leyes mas restrictivas contra el aborto
(10) "El derecho al aborto en America Latina"
(11) "Paises de America Latina y el Caribe donde el aborto se permite bajo ciertas condiciones"
(12) "Seis paises permiten el aborto terapeutico" |
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