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| Abortion legalised in Mexico City | Abortion legalised in Mexico City |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Mexico City's legislative assembly has voted to legalise abortion in the city, the capital of the world's second-largest Roman Catholic country. | Mexico City's legislative assembly has voted to legalise abortion in the city, the capital of the world's second-largest Roman Catholic country. |
| New legislation will permit abortions of pregnancies in the first trimester, or 12 weeks, but only in Mexico City. | New legislation will permit abortions of pregnancies in the first trimester, or 12 weeks, but only in Mexico City. |
| Mexico City previously allowed abortion only in cases of rape, if the woman's life was at risk or if there were signs of severe defects in the foetus. | Mexico City previously allowed abortion only in cases of rape, if the woman's life was at risk or if there were signs of severe defects in the foetus. |
| Opponents of the abortion law have said they will challenge it in the courts. | Opponents of the abortion law have said they will challenge it in the courts. |
| Mexico City lawmakers voted 46 to 19 in favour of the bill. | |
| Church concerns | |
| The decision comes despite huge pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican has expressed its concern at the change in the law. | |
| Prior to the vote, opinion polls in Mexico, where the population is 90% Catholic, indicated that people were evenly split on the issue. | |
| Authors of the draft law pointed out that at least 1,500 women have died in Mexico over the last decade as a result of illegal abortions performed in unhygienic backstreet clinics. | |
| Many victims of rape are denied access to legal abortion, Human Rights Watch said in a report last year. | |
| The Mexico City assembly has courted controversy in Mexico before: it recently voted to allow same-sex civil unions and is currently considering legalising euthanasia. |