New Mexico City Law Has Jail for Not Advising Abortion Rights

Beyond the Veil| In a ‘culture wars’ response to new state-sponsored laws in Mexico that overturn a woman’s right to abortion, doctors in Mexico City could face four years in jail for NOT telling a woman that she has a right to abortion in the first trimester of her pregnancy.

The bill, which is being debated in the legislature and is expected to pass, has the support of more than a dozen members of Mexico City’s ruling Democratic Revolution party — the same party that passed the 2007 law that legalized abortion in Mexico’s capital city.

Beatriz Rojas, the legislator introducing the Mexico City bill, says the law is needed because “moral or religious concepts intend to influence the decision of the woman, misinforming her or deceiving her, regarding the decision to interrupt the pregnancy.” via FOX News

We’ve tracked the challenges to Mexico’s abortion laws. Read our most recent in-depth article Mexico’s Lizbeth Gamboa Song Says 10-Year-Old Girl ‘Has Proper Understanding’ of Delivering Her Baby in Rape Case.

Update on Sun, May 2, 2010 by Anne

We will follow up with another in-depth discussion of this issue in Mexico and South America. My own writing has focused on the issue of the Vatican patriarchy believing that they are above the laws of the countries in which they operate.

We wrote about the 2009 rape case in Brazil, in which the Catholic Church threatened to excommunicate a woman for obtaining a legal abortion for her nine-year-old daughter, pregnant with twins after being allegedly raped by her stepfather.

The excommunications went forward, with the Catholic Church not excommunicating the stepfather.

Archbishop Don Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife excommunicated the doctor, the child’s mother and the medical team involved in the procedure with Sobrinho telling Globo TV that, “A graver act than (rape) is abortion, to eliminate an innocent life.”

The life of a nine-year-old girl pregnant with twins, and raped, is not worth protecting. Astonishing. The statistics about dangers to the life of the mother in cases like this one are well established.

It’s this kind of action by the Catholic Church — forcing the families of young children to lose their faith and community standing if they exercise their legal rights — that’s also going on in Mexico City and prompting the new law. And frankly, it could happen in America any day now.

Read on:Anu Kumar: Punishing the Victim in the Yucatan Huffington Post

Excommunicated doctor hailed for abortion on child rape victim. CNN