An island of liberties
adding legal indications for abortion to the Penal Code, during a 1999 review, the government chose to ignore the controversial bill, rather than take a political risk just before the 2000 Presidential elections. Even so, the PRD lost the 2000 elections to the conservative National Action Party (PAN), but maintained a majority in Mexico City.1 In 2000, the tragic story of Paulina Ramirez Jacinto became national news. Paulina, a 13-year-old girl from Mexicali, Baja California, became pregnant after being raped by a gang of thieves in her family’s house. Although Paulina received permission to obtain a legal abortion, the hospital authorities pressured her mother by using misleading information to deny her the abortion.2,3 The Paulina case garnered significant national and international media attention. At the same time, conservative legislators in the state of Guanajuato proposed removing an article from the Penal Code allowing for abortion in cases of rape. This proposal was made despite the fact that public opinion polls in Guanajuato showed that 60 percent of the population disapproved of this legislative reform.4 The public opinion evidence left the Mayor of Guanajuato with no choice but to veto the proposed change to the penal code.1 Both events generated increased favorable public opinion about abortion.1 The Mexico City Interim Mayor Rosario Robles, from the PRD, used this opportunity to introduce a bill in the Federal District Legislative Assembly (ALDF) allowing for abortion in cases of fetal impairment, risk to the woman’s health, and artificial insemination without the woman’s consent. The law was passed and became known as the “Robles Law,”1,2 The PAN and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) claimed, before the National Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN), that these amendments were unconstitutional. In 2002, the SCJN concluded, that even though life is protected under Mexican jurisprudence, there may be certain circumstances where women should not be sanctioned.1 The SCJN decision paved the way
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