Protestors in Mexico City. (CreativeCommons License)

Mexico is confronting the question of legalized abortions head-on for the first time. The proposal triggered a fierce battle between liberal and conservative groups in the capital, one which continues to command the nation's attention. Both sides have staged marches and media campaigns, while outside forces ranging from the Vatican to the federal government have thrown their weight against the legalization. Yet, while ground-breaking, the debate has also been profoundly Mexican, shaped by the nation's political divisions, strong current of Catholicism, and long history of conflict between church and state.

Rebellion has always occupied a place in Mexican political culture, and the politicians and activists who lifted the ban on abortions in Mexico City painted their decision as one of heroic defiance; but will the revolutionary spark spread across Mexico and into the rest of Latin America?

Making Progress

Maria Elba Garfias, a deputy in the city's Legislative Assembly, is one of the leaders of the pro-choice movement. Her party, the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), holds a majority of seats in the assembly and was the driving force behind the legalization effort. Speaking to the Globalist, she said the legislation represented Progress with a capital P, "We've lifted Mexico City up, made it more like a First World city. It's historic."

But as she discussed the changes in the law from her office overlooking the Zoacutecalo, the social and political heart of Mexico City, Elba talked most about those who live in the metropolis' sprawling outskirts. "In this city, conditions are terrible for many women," she said. Of the abortions that have taken place so far, most have been by women from the neighborhoods of Ixtapalapa and Gustava Madero, two of Mexico City's poorest neighborhoods. "Since abortion has been legalized, there have been no deaths from clandestine abortions. Zero."

Between 1999 and 2004, clandestine abortions led to 55,000 hospitalizations and 202 deaths in Mexico City; estimates for the number of clandestine abortions practiced nationwide each year range from 100,000 to upwards of 500,000. In the eyes of the PRD, which sees itself as the champion of Mexico's working classes and considers itself the most revolutionary; of Mexico's political parties, legalizing abortion is part of a larger campaign to help Mexico City's most disadvantaged women, a way to limit deaths from clandestine abortions and bring the practice out of the shadows.

Forming an Opposition

Not far from the center of this sprawling metropolis lies the district office of one of deputy Elba's political rivals: Margarita Martinez Fisher. A deputy to the legislative assembly and a member of the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), she is one of the most vocal opponents of abortion's legalization. With ebulliently rapid speech and large gestures, she explained to the Globalist that in her and her party's view, "Life is life from conception, and nobody wants there to be more abortions, not even those who want to legalize it."

Martinez's approach to the controversy is pragmatic. Although PAN is popular with Catholic voters, Martinez frames her position in secular terms, focusing on the welfare of Mexico City's women. "Getting pregnant in Mexico City is going to cost you 25,000 pesos;around $2,500 at least," she pointed out. In her view, the state should improve its support of pregnant women instead of allowing them to have abortions.

Martinez has proposed a bundle of reforms to achieve that goal, including strengthening defenses against discrimination in the work place, making information on adoption services more widely available, and setting up a special pension fund exclusively for pregnant women.

Although a minority in liberal Mexico City, PAN is a key player in national politics, given that party member Felipe Calderon occupies the country's presidency. While Martinez's posturing has drawn media attention, in Mexico City PAN is too weak to challenge the legalization directly. That role has fallen to President Calderon, on whose orders the federal attorney general has challenged the city ordinance as unconstitutional. If the Supreme Court rules in his favor, abortion will again be illegal in Mexico City.

Political Believers

Pro-Vida, an activist group led by Jorge Serrano Limon, is trying to prevent abortions in Mexico City in its own way. Their message is not subtle: hanging from the otherwise bare walls in Pro-Vida's headquarters are three small paintings of the Virgin Mary. In one, a young Mary appears to be crying as she holds the bodies of several infants.