Lawmakers From Mexico's Green Party Introduce Bill That Would Increase Prison Sentences For Illegal Abortions

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 04 Apr 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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Lawmakers from Mexico's Green Party on Thursday introduced a bill that would increase prison sentences for illegal abortions performed in the country, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports (AP/International Herald Tribune, 3/30). The bill, sponsored by Green Party Sen. Arturo Escobar, would increase prison sentences -- currently between six months and one year -- to one to three years for women who have an illegal abortion, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. Escobar said the bill also would increase the prison sentence for anyone who forces a woman to have the procedure against her will from six to eight years to eight to 10 years. He added that the measure aims to challenge a bill filed Tuesday by lawmakers from Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution that would legalize abortion nationwide during the first three months' gestation (AP/Houston Chronicle, 3/30). PDR's bill proposes that government health clinics provide abortions to women who request them. Under current Mexican law, abortion is permitted only if the life of the pregnant woman is endangered or if the woman has been raped. Leaders of Roman Catholic, Anglican, evangelical and Orthodox churches last month said they have united to call on their followers to advocate against the measure. Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week said, "I have a plain respect of the dignity of human life, and within this I believe the existing legislation is adequate." Calderon's National Action Party is the strongest force in the country's Congress (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/29). According to Escobar, "Mexican society is only prepared to allow abortion when the pregnancy is the result of rape, when the fetus has congenital defects or when the life of the women is at risk." According to the AP/Herald Tribune, PDR's bill to legalize abortion nationwide is expected to face a "tough test" in Congress. However, a bill that would allow pregnant women in Mexico City to obtain a legal abortion during the first three months' gestation is expected to be approved in April, the AP/Herald Tribune reports (AP/International Herald Tribune, 3/30). PDR lawmakers recently proposed the measure. The party holds Mexico City's mayorship and the majority in the city's Legislature (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/29).

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In related news, the New York Times and McClatchy/Miami Herald recently examined the debate in Mexico surrounding the abortion legislation. According to the Times, if the bill that would allow women in Mexico City to obtain legal abortions passes, it "would be groundbreaking in Latin America, where most countries allow abortion only under strict conditions" (McKinley et al., New York Times, 3/31). According to the Herald, abortion has been a "perennial issue" in Mexico, where most residents "at least nominally consider themselves Roman Catholic." However, "for the first time the political landscape [in the country] favors advocates of abortion rights," the Herald reports (Hall, McClatchy/Miami Herald, 4/2).

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