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August 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life and pro-abortion representatives in the congress of the Mexican State of Hidalgo are offering opposing laws, one to protect the right to life from conception, and the other to depenalize the deadly procedure during the first 12 weeks of gestation.

Representative Sandra Ordaz of the socialist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has introduced the initiative to depenalize abortion in the state, arguing that state residents are the second most likely to travel to Mexico City to obtain an abortion.

However, Yolanda Tellería Beltrán of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) counters that “from conception there is life and that is what we will be defending”; she has introduced a new initiative to protect the unborn.

Tellería Beltrán adds that abortion has been transformed into a “business,” pointing to radio ads that announce abortion services available legally in Mexico City during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy under a 2007 law.

The state of Hidalgo already exempts perpetrators from criminal penalties in cases of rape and fetal deformity, as well as risk to the mother’s life, but does not permit abortion on demand. Tellería Beltrán says she supports those exceptions but does not want to add to them.

Instead, the PAN representative wants the state government to educate teens about human sexuality to enable them to avoid recourse to abortion.

The conflict in Hidalgo is one of a series of legislative battles that has ensued following the legalization of abortion on demand in Mexico City four years ago.  Tens of thousands of unborn children have perished as a result, and numerous state legislatures have countered with pro-life constitutional amendments. Hidalgo is not one of them.

The state of Hidalgo’s proximity to Mexico City makes it a major source of customers for the city’s booming abortion business.