Mexican state bolsters protections for pregnant women, unborn children

Queretaro, Mexico, Mar 30, 2021 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- The unicameral legislature of the Mexican state of Querétaro passed a bill March 29 reforming the Law on Social Development to add protections for pregnant women and unborn children.

The legislature also passed a resolution urging the federal Chamber of Deputies to defeat proposed constitutional reforms that would open the door to abortion and gender ideology.

Both measures, introduced by Elsa Méndez, passed by a margin of 19 to 5.

The Querétaro state constitution already protects human life from the moment of conception, and the child in the womb is considered already born for all legal intents and purposes. The new law fortifies that right.

Méndez explained that the bill “makes effective the already recognized economic, social and cultural rights of the unborn human being and the pregnant woman” and expressly creates “the obligation to provide comprehensive protection for motherhood and (the unborn child’s) life”  during pregnancy.

The state legislator stressed that with this law, state public policies will have “to ensure support for this population that is usually in a vulnerable situation.”

In her remarks before a full session of the legislature, Méndez said she introduced the bill in the context of  the Day of the Unborn Child, which is observed March 25 in a number of Latin American countries.

That day, she said, “is intended to recognize, promote and defend human life from its conception in the mother’s womb,” and is ”an effort to promote a culture of life that ensures the promotion of the human dignity of the person in all stages.”

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish language news partner, Rodrigo Iván Cortés, the president of the National Front for the Family, said that “today life has won out in Querétaro, with a very good initiative from Deputy Elsa Méndez.”

“The majority of the congress has passed a reform that adds the protection and promotion of life from its inception, in all its stages,” within the framework of “social development,” Cortés said.

On March 11, the federal Chamber of Deputies committee that considers amendments to the Constitution approved proposed reforms that would open the door to legalizing abortion and gender ideology.

After passing out of committee, the next step in the legislative process is for the Chamber of Deputies to debate and vote on the reforms, which should take place in the coming weeks. 

The resolution that the Querétaro state legislature passed March 29 urges the Chamber of Deputies not to pass those reforms.

The terms that would be added to the constitution include “reproductive autonomy,” “free development of the personality” and “sexual and reproductive health services” as well as concepts such as “gender expression,” “same-sex marriages,” “substantive equality,” “sexual and genital identity,” and generic sexes.

The president of the National Front for the Family stressed that the resolution passed by the Querétaro state legislature is “a very important appeal from the local to the federal level” to address “perhaps the very worst initiative that the Morena Party in the federal congress has come up with.”

This attempt at constitutional reform, Cortés said, “in one single blow promotes abortion, the imposition of gender ideology and the restriction of fundamental freedoms.”