“Long life for Life in Mexico!” shouted more than 25,000 Mexicans from all walks of life gathered at the historic Zocalo square in Mexico City on September 24. The march, called by Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City and the powerful pro-life organization Comité Nacional Pro Vida (CNPV), was one of the efforts to counteract an anti-life “final charge” launched by feminist organizations and left-wing political parties before an adamantly pro-life president-elect, Vicente Fox Quesada, takes office on December 1.

The “war” over abortion started on July 5 after Fox, a pro-life Catholic, was elected as the first Mexican president from a party other than the center-left Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) which ruled the country for more than 70 years.

“Immediately after the country was surprised with this unprecedented change in Mexico’s political history, pro-abortion forces realized they would face an uphill road in the future and decided to launch a sort of ‘final assault,’” said Jorge Serrano Limon, head of CNPV.

The pro-life leader added that the debate over abortion launched by the major media outlets in Mexico was a “well-planned, artificial environment created by pro-abortion forces to launch a campaign to change the pro-life mentality of Mexicans.”

In fact, in late July, after the legislature of the state of Guanajuato approved a law banning legal abortion even in cases of rape or incest, newspapers and major networks were suddenly flooded with dramatic stories of raped women in order to show how the new law was “inhumane.” A source at the Mexican bishops’ conference admitted that pro-life forces were “caught by surprise” by the well-orchestrated campaign, which not only portrayed bishops as cruel men “insensitive” to women’s sufferings, but even made some politicians declare that it was “Christian and compassionate” to legalize abortion, “at least” in cases of rape or incest.

In the midst of the public debate, the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), which controls the Federal District of Mexico City, immediately decided to make a bold move before President Fox took office. On August 11, the Feminist Caucus of PRD presented a proposed law to the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City to make abortion legal in cases of rape, incest, and “malformation of the fetus.” With the support of the delegates from PRI and of the radical leftist Workers’ Party (PT), the law was approved on August 18.

According to pro-life organizations, the hearings and debates before the approval of the law were manipulated, yet tumultuous. In fact, Serrano Limon, who was invited to explain the pro-life position, was brutally beaten inside the Congress both by feminists and PRD legislators. Outside the Congress, PRD militants destroyed and burned banners of peaceful pro-life demonstrators.

Immediately after the law was approved, the Health Commission of the Legislative Assembly announced that at least 26 public hospitals were “equipped and well prepared to perform abortions.”

The law was quickly stopped from being enforced by Fox’s party, the Partido de Accion Nacional (PAN), which joined forces with the Green Ecologist Party. Unlike other Ecologist parties around the world, the Mexican one is strongly pro-life. Both parties presented a complaint to the Supreme Court, alleging that the law approved by the Assembly, which would be enforced on 24 million Mexicans living in Mexico City, was unconstitutional.

The pro-life march of September 24 was recognized as a victory not only for the crowd gathered, but also because some 100 civil and religious organizations, including many non-Catholic ones, signed a joint statement urging the Legislature to repeal the new law.

After the pro-life march, the information tidal wave started to flow the other way. In fact, several media organizations accepted invitations to report on Church-run facilities in which raped women received help, support, and means to carry their pregnancies to term. “When people started to understand that the unborn child is a key piece of the discussion, and that abortion only imposes a greater burden on women, the tide of opinion started to change,” said Bishop Onesimo Cepeda, spokesman for the Mexican bishops’ conference, in early October.

The Church speaks out
“Pro-life forces were able to carry the truthful message when some courageous raped women said that the problem was not on the baby’s end, but on the state’s which has to punish rape and provide safety,” he added. In the process of recovering momentum for pro-life forces, the intervention of the Catholic Church, especially of Cardinal Rivera, had a decisive role. In fact, Cardinal Rivera quickly stated that any kind of abortion was not only against Catholic doctrine, but also against true Christian sensibility.

In several forums, the cardinal, who is also the primate of Mexico, countered the opinion popularized by the local branch of Catholics for a Free Choice, which despite its tiny presence in Mexico, has enormous financial resources provided by mainly US-based foundations to promote the idea that abortion is not contrary to Catholic doctrine.

“The Church, and that means each Catholic, has the duty to defend human life, from the moment of its conception to its natural end,” said Cardinal Rivera during a homily at Mexico City’s cathedral. “We believe that human life is sacred, and therefore, it is impossible for a true Catholic to believe that there are ‘exceptions’ to the sanctity of human life.”

“Whoever accepts, promotes, or defends abortion as a means to apparently ‘solve’ any human, social, or economic problem, is putting himself outside the Church,” he added. Later, at a Mass celebrated at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in early October, Cardinal Rivera Carrera stated that “any politician supporting abortion is automatically excommunicated.”

As expected, the cardinal’s statement unleashed an uproar of criticism from feminist organizations, as well as from members of the still-ruling PRI. Some PRI and PRD congressmen even threatened the cardinal with lawsuits before the Supreme Court for allegedly “violating the separation between Church and State.” The Mexican bishops’ conference immediately backed the cardinal, stating that he was only “exercising his basic human right of free speech, guaranteed to all Mexicans by our Constitution.”

The cardinal responded to his critics:
It is not I, the archbishop of Mexico City, or any other Church authority, who determines whether to excommunicate this or that particular person; it is each Catholic who, by choosing to act against the teachings of the Catholic Church, chooses to be excommunicated. It is the canon law, the Universal Church who teaches so, and it is our duty as shepherds to teach and let all Catholics know the perils they face.

Despite the trend of public opinion back to the pro-life position, the law approved by the Legislature of Mexico City still hangs over the nation. “Pro-abortionists are trying to push as hard as possible to make the Supreme Court decide in favor of the law,” said a source from the Mexican bishops’ conference. “It is very clear what they want: to have pro-abortion legislation approved in as many states as possible before President Fox takes office.”

“But we know the strategy, and we are prepared to hold on until December 1 and beyond, because we know that their [ the pro-abortionists] ‘final assault’ will be anything but final,” the source added.