Currently, many Mexican women who face unwanted pregnancies have few options and will resort to unsafe, clandestine providers.

Legislators in Mexico City introduced historic legislation last week that would liberalize its abortion laws, making abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy legal under a broad range of circumstances. 

Currently, abortion is legal in the capital in cases of rape, to save the life of the mother, or in the case of severe fetal abnormalities.  As in the United States, abortion in Mexico is governed by state laws, which vary from state to state.  Mexico City is a federal district like Washington, D.C., with its own legislature and set of laws.

Wealthier women in Mexico have long had access to abortions in private hospitals, or traveled to the United States for legal abortion care.  However, low-income women, young women and women from rural areas who face unwanted pregnancies have few options, and many will resort to unsafe, clandestine providers.  In Mexico City, the consequences of this discrepancy on its 8.7 million residents — and the additional 13 million residing the Mexico City metropolitan area — are particularly harsh.

“Mexico City alone accounts for approximately 14 percent of all abortion-related deaths in Mexico,” said Raffaela Schiavon, Executive Director of Ipas Mexico.  “More than 10,000 women were hospitalized for complications from abortion last year.”

The legislation was introduced by the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which holds a majority of seats in the city legislature.  The legislation has broad support among political parties in the Mexico City assembly, including the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).  A survey by the renowned firm Maria de las Heras, and published in the Mexico City newspaper Milenio on Wednesday, indicates that 72 percent of women in the federal district support decriminalizing abortion. 

The legislation must be reviewed by three legislative committees before it is finalized and voted upon by the whole legislature.  A vote is expected at the end of April.  “Equal access to abortion care is as important as any other health service,” said M. Virginia Chambers, Ipas Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.  “It is a clear violation of women’s human rights to deny poor women the same access to health care that wealthy women have.”

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