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Top Mexico court shows support for abortion law

Mexico’s Supreme Court was poised on Wednesday to uphold legal abortion in the capital despite deep opposition elsewhere in the heavily Catholic country.

Eight of the 11 Supreme Court justices said during deliberations that they would vote against declaring the law unconstitutional.

Eight votes would be needed to strike it down, but only three judges have spoken in favor of doing so. The justices were expected to take a formal vote within the next couple of days.

“To affirm that there is an absolute constitutional protection of life in gestation would lead to the violation of the fundamental rights of women,” Justice Sergio Valls said.

Mexico City made it legal last year for doctors to terminate a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks, part of a package of socially liberal measures passed by the capital’s leftist-dominated assembly last year. Lawmakers also approved gay civil unions and passed protections for terminally ill people who reject medical treatment.

The federal Attorney-General’s Office and National Human Rights Commission appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that city assemblies can’t make health 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.

Most Latin American countries allow abortion only if the woman’s life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. In 2006, Nicaragua banned abortion in all cases. Cuba permits abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, as does the US.

Since the law took effect, more than 12,000 women have had abortions at the 14 Mexico City hospitals providing them, the city health department said.

Of those, 20 percent have come from outside the capital, said Raffaela Schiavon, who directs the international abortion rights group Ipas and has been advising the city government.
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