Mexican Supreme Court to hold hearings on Mexico City abortion law

A woman in Mexico visits a mobile clinic to receive family planning information.

Last April, Mexico City became the first district in the country to provide legal abortion on demand for all women during the first trimester, in public-health sector hospitals. Women in the world’s second-largest city can now receive safe, legal abortions on demand in public hospitals, rather than resorting to unsafe facilities or unqualified providers. This January, the Mexico City Ministry of Health reported that 5,200 women had received legal abortion services (compared to 66 legal procedures during the previous four years).

However, two federal institutions in Mexico – the Attorney General and the National Commission on Human Rights – have raised constitutional challenges against Mexico City’s abortion law. Now, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice is in the process of determining whether this law will remain legal. The Court is expected to open a series of hearings both to pro- and anti-choice organizations. Ipas and allied organizations are preparing for these hearings with arguments and materials covering legal, philosophical, medical and social reasons to support Mexico City’s abortion law, and an extremely successful seminar on the topic has been organized in Mexico City’s major public university, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México.

To read Ipas’s original story on the Mexico City law change from April 2007, click here.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258