Since Mexico City legislators reformed the district’s abortion law in April, women can now access safe, legal abortions performed by skilled providers.

Photo courtesy of The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

On April 24, 2007, the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City passed landmark legislation decriminalizing abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. The law’s constitutionality was immediately challenged by the National Commission on Human Rights and Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza. While the Supreme Court is reviewing arguments, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has responded rapidly to the immediate demand and is providing services despite logistical challenges and anti-choice opposition.

“We at Ipas are impressed with the commitment with which the authorities and providers from the MOH of Mexico City have responded to the opportuniti es and challenges that the new law presents,” said  Dr. Raffaela Schiavon, Director of Ipas Mexico. “We are also impressed by the way in which women have exercised their right to choose and receive a legal abortion.”

After the approval of the penal code reforms legalizing early abortion, the legislation was signed by the mayor and went into effect with lightning speed — two days after the vote. Together with a wide range of partners, Ipas collaborated with MOH authorities to 1) identify training and equipment needs to strengthen services in the assigned MOH hospitals, and 2) to determine contents of the abortion guidelines, which were issued approximately one week after the law came into effect.

In addition to Ipas’s immediate response to requests for assistance, Ipas will also work with the MOH to plan and budget for instrument needs for the future, and to conduct training courses for health staff of the district’s 14 public hospitals designated as service providers.

Before the most recent reform, Ipas had already developed a strong relationship with the MOH on postabortion care and legal abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality and risk to a woman’s life or health. As a result of that work, Ipas is seen as the key provider of technical assistance for service implementation.

Soon after the legal reform, women began inquiring about and requesting legal abortion services. Almost two months after the vote, approximtely 700 legal abortions have been performed. Three of the hospitals performing most of the abortions were already Ipas Centers of Excellence, model sites implementing comprehensive abortion care in Ipas’s Legal Abortion project. Additionally, most of the procedures were performed by providers trained by Ipas in courses covering postabortion care, legal abortion, sexual violence and human rights.

The new guidelines do not establish a residency requirement, which opens the door to all women in the federal district of Mexico City, which has a population of about 22 million. Women from other parts of the country can travel to the district to obtain safe abortion services. However, only district residents are entitled to free services; women from elsewhere pay fees based on a sliding scale.

Private-sector services are also possible under the new guidelines, and Ipas hopes that the private sector will play an important role in providing high-quality services, especially for those with financial means to pay.

Both the Legislative Assembly and civil society organizations, including Ipas, are preparing to launch a broad media campaign to explain the benefits of the legal reform and to ensure all women and particularly those most in need of safe, affordable services  — the poor, the young, the undereducated and the marginalized —are made aware of their right to high-quality abortion services.

For more information, contact media@ipas.org