Mexico City - Senators from Mexico's largest leftist party have offered a bill to legalize abortion nationwide and Mexico's Roman Catholic church vowed an expanding battle against such measures.
The proposal Tuesday by the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, the second-largest force in Congress, would allow women to have an abortion within the first three months of pregnancy. The bill also proposes that government health clinics provide women with abortions if they request them.
"We need to stop thousands of women from dying in unsafe operations," said Sen. Carlos Navarrete, who heads the PRD in the Senate. "This is a right our laws should guarantee."
Current Mexican law permits abortion only if the pregnancy endangers a woman's life or if the woman has been raped.
Many wealthier Mexican women travel to the United States for the procedures while thousands of poor women remain in Mexico and have back-street operations.
The PRD also has proposed legalizing abortion in the capital, where it holds the mayorship and a majority of lawmakers. Mexico City, with a population of 8.7 million, is a federal district similar to Washington, with its own legislature.
PRD lawmakers say that majority will guarantee that the capital becomes Mexico's first district to change the abortion rules.
But it could be harder to pass an abortion bill at a national level, where the conservative National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon holds a plurality in Congress.
Calderon on Tuesday reiterated his position against abortion.
"I have a personal conviction, and I am in defense of life," he told a news conference. "I have a plain respect for dignity and human life and, within this, I believe the existing legislation is adequate."
The Roman Catholic Church is campaigning openly against the new abortion proposals, despite a constitutional ban on political activity by religious groups.
The Vatican is sending its chief anti-abortion campaigner, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, to inaugurate an international pro-life conference in Mexico City on Friday, and Mexico City's own Cardinal Norberto Rivera plans to lead an anti-abortion procession through the city on Sunday.
Church and conservative organizations have announced plans for anti-abortion protests in the capital.
On Tuesday, Rivera's archdiocese issued a statement vowing to fight "those who promote an unjust, irresponsible and criminal law," and it called on non-Catholic groups to join the campaign.
"We want to tell those who think in an anti-democratic and intolerant way that the Church will not be silent," it said.
Navarrete said he was confident that the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, would also vote to change laws nationally.
The PRI has many socially liberal members and in January, the PRI-governed northern state of Coahuila allowed gay couples to register civil unions and receive legal benefits similar to those of married couples. A similar law took effect in Mexico City last week.
About 90 percent of Mexicans consider themselves Roman Catholic, but polls published this week showed strong support for allowing abortion in many cases.