MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Supreme Court upheld the capital’s abortion law Thursday, setting a precedent for the rest of the country that could inspire other Latin American cities.
Mexico City is one of the few places in Latin America that allows abortion without limitations in the first trimester, although abortion rights groups complain most doctors still refuse to do the procedure.
Within minutes of the 8-3 vote in favor of the law, abortion rights groups were thinking of ways to expand the decision to other parts of Mexico and even Latin America, where abortion is virtually unheard of.
“It opens the road for all of Latin America to start visualizing legal paths to abortion,” said Raffaella Schiavon, who directs the international abortion rights group Ipas and has been advising the city government.
Mexico City officials said they were preparing to help other local governments in the region interested in approving similar laws.
Elsewhere in Mexico, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape, when the mother’s life is in danger or if the fetus has severe deformities. That is standard across Latin America, where only Cuba and Guyana allow abortions without restrictions in the first trimester. Nicaragua banned abortion in all cases in 2006.
Anti-abortion groups were mobilizing to fight other local attempts to legalize abortion.
“This tragedy we are living in Mexico City is going to spread to other states,” said Jorge Serrano, director of the anti-abortion group Pro-Vida.
Supreme Court Justice Margarita Luna said the ruling opened the possibility of other similar laws in Mexico.
“This decision was in regard to Mexico City’s Legislative Assembly, but in the end it establishes a precedent that can be applied to other local lawmaking bodies,” she said
The issue will still be a battleground. Conservative President Felipe Calderon, whose administration appealed the Mexico City law to the Supreme Court, will likely continue fighting efforts to expand the availability of abortions.
Under the law, all Mexico City public hospital must give their patients free abortions, but doctors under the public system also have the right to refuse to carry out the procedure. Private hospitals are not obliged to give abortions, but can without facing penalty.
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