Mexico to compensate woman denied an abortion after rape

[Judi Lynn]

March 8, 2006, 1:39AM
Mexico to compensate woman denied an abortion after rape

By MARION LLOYD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government is expected to offer a financial settlement today to a woman who was raped at 13 and then denied an abortion in violation of Mexican law.

"This is the most important legal victory for women in Mexico in a decade," said Luisa Cabal of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based rights group. "It is the first time a Latin American government has acknowledged that access to legal abortion is a human right."

The center and its partners in Mexico brought the case before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights on behalf of "Paulina," whose case gained international attention after officials, doctors and anti-abortion activists in her hometown of Mexicali on Mexico's Pacific coast pressured her not to obtain an abortion.

Paulina's supporters chose today — International Women's Day — to announce the settlement, which comes exactly four years after they took her case to the commission.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3708494.html