I normally don't focus much on Latin American politics, but this story caught my eye. Mexico City now joins Cuba and Guyana as the only places in all of Latin and Central America where abortion is legal. Furthermore, the procedure will be almost free for poor or uninsured city residents. While it is a step forward, we shouldn't get too excited.
Abortion will only be legal in the first-trimester, and women having an abortion after 12 weeks will face punishment of three to six months in jail, while those performing abortions after that period would face one to three years in jail. Various Catholic, right-wing, and anti-choice advocates also vow to take the case to court.
That being said, the left-dominated Mexico City legislature has made a wise choice in respecting a women's right to chose (well, for three months at least). As for this law's likelihood of heightening church-state tensions in the Roman Catholic nation, I can only say bring on the tension.
"Yes, we did it!" pro-choice advocates chanted at a monument to 19th-century anti-clerical reformer Benito Juarez in downtown Mexico City after the vote.
"I feel happy, because this is a step forward, not backward, for a woman's right and freedom to choose ... about her body and her life," said demonstrator Gabriela Cruz, 36.
"Decriminalizing abortion is a historic triumph, a triumph of the left," said city legislator Jorge Diaz Cuervo, a leftist social democrat who voted for the bill. "Today, there is a new atmosphere in this city. It is the atmosphere of freedom.''
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