Mexico City expected to legalize abortion amid fasts, vigils, protests

Mexico City lawmakers were poised to legalize abortion Tuesday, a decision likely to influence policies and health practices across Mexico and in other parts of heavily Roman Catholic Latin America.

The proposal — which would take effect with the leftist mayor's signature — has alarmed Mexico's conservative ruling party and prompted the Vatican to send its top anti-abortion campaigner to the Mexican capital.

Nationally, Mexico allows abortion only in cases of rape, severe birth defects or if the woman's life is at risk, although doctors sometimes deny the procedure even under those circumstances.

Mexico City's legislature, dominated by leftists, has enough votes to legalize nearly unlimited abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Opponents have vowed to challenge the new law before the Supreme Court.

It would require city hospitals to provide the procedure, but would open the way for private abortion clinics. Girls under 18 would have to get their parents' consent.

The procedure would be almost free for poor or insured city residents, but was unlikely to attract patients from the United States, where later-term abortion is legal in many states. Under the Mexico City law, abortion after 12 weeks would be punished by three to six months in jail.

The only other places in Latin America and the Caribbean with legalized abortion for all women are Cuba and Guyana. Most countries allow it only in cases of rape or when the woman's life is at risk. Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile ban it completely.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, the legal arm of the reproductive rights movement globally, applauded the Mexico City law as "historic."

"This will serve as a model to get abortion accepted nationwide, but also in Latin America and the Caribbean, where women who interrupt their pregnancies are still sent to jail," said Elba Garcia, 24, riding atop a flatbed truck in an abortion rights caravan Monday.

"Legal abortion is a fundamental right," supporters on the balloon-decked trucks chanted over loudspeakers.

The convoy passed the street corner where sociologist Bernardo Lopez, 46, and three other anti-abortion advocates have fasted since Sunday trying to change the minds of city legislators.

"The Mexican people have strong values, and fundamentally support life," Lopez said as the caravan passed by. "We don't want this to become an example for other states, so we are going to continue fighting by all means."

But recent newspaper polls showed that a majority of Mexico City residents support legalized abortions, at least in the first weeks of pregnancy.

The proposal has created an emotional confrontation in a country where the majority of people are Roman Catholic. Opponents argue that life begins at conception and the law would violate the Mexican Constitution's protection of individual rights.

President Felipe Calderon opposes the proposal and the Vatican sent its top anti-abortion campaigner to the Mexican capital. Church leaders have led marches and protests, pushing the limits of Mexico's constitutional ban on political activity by religious groups.

Armando Martinez, president of the College of Catholic Lawyers, submitted a petition Monday, signed by 36,000 people, calling for a city referendum on abortion.

The city and its suburbs are home to about one-fifth of the country's population, and many Mexicans already travel to the capital for medical treatment. Martinez said the law "could act as a magnet" for women across Mexico seeking abortions.

An estimated 200,000 women have illegal abortions each year in Mexico, based on the number who show up at hospitals later seeking treatment for complications, said Martha Micher, director of the Mexico City government's Women's Institute.

Botched abortions kill about 1,500 women each year and are the third-leading cause of death for pregnant women in the capital, Micher said.

"Of those that die, most are young and poor," Micher said; more wealthy women "go to clinics abroad, where nobody knows them ... and have safe abortions."