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Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 28, 2021 / 16:19 pm (CNA).

Fourteen years after the legalization of abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy in Mexico City, a local pro-life leader called legal abortion a failure on the part of the government in its duty to protect innocent life.

Marcial Padilla, director of the pro-life platform ConParticipación, said that “the decriminalization of abortion is a failure of the government to care for human rights, women’s health and children in the womb in Mexico CIty.”

“April 24, 2021, marks 14 years since the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City. It’s a sad anniversary, because as a result of this change in the law, to date more than 200,000 human lives have been lost,” he lamented.

The decriminalization of abortion in the city took effect in April 2007.

“Article 144 of the Criminal Code for the Federal District was changed and since then the life of a human being is not protected in its first 12 weeks, in other words, an abortion can be committed in Mexico City without any penalty under the law for up to 12 weeks’ gestation,” the pro-life leader explained.

That article defines abortion as “the interruption of pregnancy after the twelfth week of gestation.” 

The director of ConParticipación indicated that “according to the statistics provided by the Ministry of Health, from April 2007 to December 31, 2020, an estimated 231,901 elective abortions have been committed in that city during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.”

Many Latin American countries only allow abortion on specific grounds, such as to save the life of the mother, rape, or incest. 

Padilla stressed that “it’s false that there is such a thing as safe abortion. Whether legal or illegal, any abortion takes the life of a human being and entails risks to the life of the woman who aborts.”

The pro-life leader said that “it’s a lie that there are thousands of women imprisoned for committing abortions in Mexico. Statistics from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Safety System prove it.” 

In addition, Padilla noted, “abortion involves a greater injustice against women, since men who force women into having an abortion generally get off scot-free.”

“There are more of us who defend life. The evidence is clear: we want life for all unborn sons and daughters. Every life has value,” he stressed.

Finally, Padilla encouraged Mexican voters to join the “Citizen Commitment to Human Dignity, Life, Family and Freedom,” and to commit “to vote only for those candidates whose position supports all these values and fundamental rights.”