Date: 28 May 2009
Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
Members of the Coalition for Women's Health in Mexico City before the headquarters of the main political parties against laws approved in some states that "promote the rights of an embryo over those of women." Since October 2008, lawmakers with the right-wing governing party, PAN, and the centrist PRI with some support from other parties, have amended several state constitutions to give legal personhood to embryos such that women who have an abortion could be put in jail, and women who use the morning-after pill, intra-uterine devices, or assisted reproduction, could also be affected. The protest demands that the political parties explain why they are supporting those initiatives to make clear to society who is supporting the rights of women and who is not.
According to the Coalition for Women's Health, 13 Mexican states have adopted laws granting personhood to fetuses. Mexico City, where the leftist PRD governs, is the only jurisdiction to have decriminalised abortion in all circumstances up to 12 weeks.
