CUERNAVACA, Mexico, Aug. 31 (CWNews.com)

    The legislature of Mexico's Morelos state continued a controversy over abortion in the Central American country on Wednesday by loosening restrictions on abortion, going even further than a similar law recently passed in Mexico City.

    The law approved by the majority parties in the legislature, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), would allow abortion in cases of rape, birth defects, danger to the life of the mother, when the mother has had an accident, or when she has received unauthorized artificial insemination.

    Federal law in Mexico bans abortion in most cases, but controversy over the ban erupted in recent weeks when the Guanajuato state legislature passed a law banning abortion in cases of rape. That law was vetoed this week by the state's governor. Opponents of the ban tried to connect the law to President-elect Vicente Fox and his National Action Party (PAN), saying the party's ties to the Catholic Church meant the group wanted to impose Church teachings on Mexico.

    Fox, who takes office December 1 as the first president in 71 years not from the PRI, has said he opposed abortion but did not favor changing the laws.

We encourage you to check the Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and the Dossiers, features and Daily Dispatches from ZENIT International News Agency CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC, but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.