Mexico City, Mexico – The Mexican government released a report last week rejecting the Holy See’s recommendations to "respect and defend life from its conception to natural death," and to preserve and protect "marriage as the conjugal union of a man and a woman."

The report was issued as a response to the recommendations made during the United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review, to which Mexico was subject last October and in which member states made 176 recommendations on different issues concerning the country.

"Mexico recognizes and protects the right of every person to marry and found a family," read the report. "Mexico underlines that there is no international norm that defines the characteristics a family must have."

The report went on to say that the "norms which conceptualize marriage in a discriminatory form are unconstitutional," as the Mexican Constitution’s first article prohibits discrimination for "sexual orientation."

Regarding abortion, the report said that the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice couldn’t "guarantee the uniformity of different laws," as each state is free to have their own laws as long as they don’t contradict the Mexican Constitution.

Nevertheless, a recommendation made by the Netherlands, to guarantee "legal abortion" in "every state of the country" was fully accepted by the Mexican government.

Seventeen of the thirty-two Mexican entities uphold life from its conception in their constitutions.

Left-wing deputy Rocio Sanchez exhorted the Mexican government to reject the Holy See’s recommendations on life and family, as they didn’t recognize the Lay State established in the Constitution.

She said to the press that to respect and defend life from its conception is "in clear opposition to the right of free and voluntary motherhood as it criminalizes abortion."

Several other feminist groups reacted to the Holy See’s recommendations, asking the government to reject the proposals that "are contrary to the life and full development of the female population."

This ideology, Sanchez said, "weakens the woman and weakens her environment, her family."

"We should have foreseen they would be rejected," said Leticia Gonzalez of Voz Publica A.C. in an interview. "Every reform and change in legislation is moving in that sense."

"If you sicken family, you sicken society," she concluded.

Of the 176 member states, only the Holy See made recommendations in regards to the protection of the unborn and the institution of family.