Mexico’s High Court Says Yes to Abortion

[WSJ_law_blog]

Mexico’s Supreme Court has voted to uphold legal abortion in Mexico City, making the Mexican capital one of only a handful of places in Latin America that allow abortion without limitations in the first trimester. Here’s the early AP story.

The law was considered historic when it was passed last year, according to this NYT story. Most countries in Latin America permit abortions only under very limited circumstances, notes the Times, like after a rape and to save the life of the mother, although abortion rights groups say that, in practice, women face hurdles in obtaining abortions even in those cases. Chile, Nicaragua and El Salvador outlaw abortion altogether.

The Roman Catholic Church had opposed the Mexico City law, buying a one-minute television advertisement to speak against abortion during prime time on Sunday night. And Magistrate Mariano Azuela, who was one of two justices to speak against the law, declared that life begins at conception. “I feel that a woman in some way has to live with the phenomenon of becoming pregnant,” he reportedly said. “When she does not want to keep the product of the pregnancy, she still has to suffer the effects during the whole period.”