Mexican state advances pro-life constitutional amendment

Culiacan, Mexico, Oct 2, 2018 / 16:42 pm

The congress of the Mexican state of Sinaloa on Friday passed a constitutional amendment protecting human life from the moment of conception.

The amendment, passed Sept. 28 by the unicameral state legislature, must be ratified by a majority of the state's municipalities.

The vote was 32 in favor, one against, and one abstention.

Since the 2007 legalization of abortion in Mexico City under the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), 18 Mexican states have passed constitutional reforms protecting human life from conception.

The proposed Article 4 of the Sinaloa constitution reads: "Everyone has a right to have their life respected. The state protects the right to life from the moment an individual is conceived, enters under the protection of the law and is considered as born for all legal intents and purposes, until their natural death."

Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of the National Front for the Family, told ACI Prensa the amendment was introduced by Juan Pablo Yumani of the National Action Party (PAN).

The majority party in the Sinaloa congress is the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

For Cortés, this amendment to the Sinaloa constitution "is a ray of light in a very murky time" since several organizations recently celebrated the legalization of abortion in Mexico City and demanded that it be extended throughout the country.

Among these are the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) of president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who announced during a Sept. 27 press conference they will seek to legalize abortion throughout Mexico.

Cortés noted that MORENA is joined in their goal by PRD.

The state of Veracruz is also being pressured to legalized abortion.

Cortés said the National Front for the Family will hold pro-life marches throughout Mexico Oct. 20.

This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.