The Roman Catholic Church has launched an aggressive campaign in Mexico City against a bill that would allow pregnant women to obtain a legal abortion during the first three months' gestation.

Under current Mexican law, abortion only is permitted if the life of the pregnant woman is endangered or if the woman has been raped.

Lawmakers from Mexico's Party of the Democratic Revolution in March proposed the measure in the city's Legislature.

The party holds Mexico City's mayorship and the majority in the city's Legislature. The Mexico City Legislature is widely expected to approve the legislation, despite opposition from the church.

"The Catholic Church has lost a lot of influence as Mexicans have become more aware of their rights as citizens and not just their rights as baptized Catholics," Mario Canseco, global studies director at Angus Reid Global Monitor, a research group that tracks public opinion, said.

However, thousands of abortion-rights opponents earlier this month were led by church officials to Mexico City's Basilica de Guadalupe, where they waved banners proclaiming "a culture of death".

Marcelino Hernandez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico, recently said that if the proposed Mexico City bill passes, any lawmaker who voted in favor of the measure would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church when the first abortion is performed under the law.

Source: Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 17/APR/07