Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research

Urban-Rural Abortion Divide Evident in Mexico

April 15, 2007

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Mexican adults hold differing views on pregnancy termination, according to a poll by Parametría. 44 per cent of respondents in Mexico City agree with allowing abortion in the first 14 weeks of gestation, while only 23 per cent of respondents in the rest of the country concur.

In Mexico, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape or when the mother's life is at risk. An investigation by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) found that roughly one million abortions are conducted every year in the Latin American country.

The Mexico City legislature is currently debating a proposal which would allow women to interrupt a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks of gestation. The Catholic Church has opposed the plan.

Conservative National Action Party (PAN) Mexico City leader Mariana Gómez del Campo said her party would launch an appeal to the Mexican Supreme Court in the event the law is modified, adding, "We believe that, unfortunately, the citizens know very little about this topic."

Former Mexico City health secretary Asa Cristina Laurell discussed the proposal, saying, "No woman wants to have an abortion, so it is much better to do so with the approval of the legislature so we can remove the stigma from a woman's sex life."

Polling Data

Do you agree or disagree with allowing women to have an abortion without being penalized, if the procedure takes place within the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy?

Mexico
City

Rest of
Mexico

Agree

44%

23%

Disagree

38%

58%

Neither

14%

15%

Not sure

3%

4%

No reply

1%

--

Source: Parametría
Methodology: Interviews with 1,200 Mexican adults—including 400 in Mexico City—conducted from Mar. 24 to Mar. 27, 2007. Margins of error are 4.9 per cent (Mexico City) and 3.5 per cent (Rest of Mexico).

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