Abortion stirs Mexico debate

MEXICO CITY — Mexico again is debating whether to legalize abortion. For Daphne, 22 and a law student, the outcome won't make a difference: She has finalized her plans to terminate her pregnancy. She's found the right clinic and is going ahead with the support of her middle-class family.

"I don't know why they debate so much if it is done anyway. Gynecologists will do it just about anywhere," said Daphne, who asked that she not be identified by her surname.

Abortion has long been a perennial issue in this country of 107 million, where most Mexicans at least nominally consider themselves Roman Catholic. But for the first time, the political landscape favors advocates of abortion rights.

A measure that would decriminalize abortion in Mexico City is before the city's legislative assembly and appears to have a good chance of passage because the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, enjoys a majority.

The party has introduced a similar decriminalization measure in Mexico's Congress, but there it faces an uncertain future because the ruling conservative National Action Party, or PAN, enjoys a slim majority.

The debate reflects the deep political divide that remains after the PAN's Felipe Calderón won July's presidential election by fewer than 300,000 votes nationwide.

Calderón's PAN long has had a close relationship with the Roman Catholic Church; his father, a party founder, faced discrimination because of his religious beliefs. Calderón dodged the abortion issue during the presidential campaign but argues against changes to Mexico's abortion laws, which allow the procedure only in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger.

On the other side is the PRD, which is pushing the abortion measure as an extension of its presidential-campaign pledge to put the poor first. Marcelo Ebrard, the recently elected mayor of Mexico City and a PRD member, said the poor rely on homemade remedies and unlicensed practitioners while the rich and middle class enjoy abortion on demand.

The sanctity of life is a main tenet of Roman Catholic theology, and Mexico's church leaders are starting a fierce fight against the measure in Mexico City. Church leaders are ignoring a constitutional ban on involvement in politics that dates to the founding of the modern republic after the Mexican Revolution of 1917.

In an unusual statement Friday, the Archdiocese of Mexico praised Calderón and accused PRD leaders of "weak thinking" that "once again puts in evidence, one more time, the authoritarian and fascist face of the Party of the Democratic Revolution."

The church has urged anti-abortion protests outside the city legislature, and the Vatican has sent officials to Mexico City.

Despite the heated debate, the reality is that abortion is readily available in Mexico. How it's performed varies by social status.

For the poor in and around Mexico's capital, few can drum up the $700 it costs for an abortion in a clinic. Many instead resort to taking Cytotec, an ulcer medication by Pfizer that can induce a miscarriage. Pfizer warns against its use by pregnant women, and it's supposed to be given only with a prescription.

But McClatchy Newspapers found it widely for sale without prescriptions in Mexican pharmacies, where it costs $150 to $190 for 28 200 mg tablets, about double the going rate in the United States.

Marta, a maid, told how she borrowed money to purchase the tablets to end her daughter's second pregnancy. The 17-year-old already struggled to care for one baby.

"We just couldn't afford another child. I feel so terrible about this," she said, sobbing.

For wealthier Mexicans, posh clinics bill insurance companies for abortions, using language that suggests complications in the pregnancy.

That includes spontaneous abortion; ectopic, or tubal, pregnancy; amniotic crisis; and various other code phrases that would legally justify an abortion.

"Whether it's approved or not, the women who have this need will do this," said Jose, a gynecologist who agreed to discuss abortion on the condition his last name not be divulged.