Legislators in Mexico City have voted to legalise abortion provoking uproar in the staunchly Catholic country.
A fierce legal battle is expected to follow as opposition to the bill includes Mexico's churches and President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party.
Yesterday's vote made the megalopolis one of the rare parts of Latin America where abortion is legal without restrictions in the first three months of pregnancy.
The issue has divided Mexico in the past months, with Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI urging residents to reject the bill and local Catholic officials threatening to excommunicate anyone supporting it.
The proposal was approved in the city legislature, which is dominated by the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, by 46 votes to 19, with one abstention.
Outside court meanwhile, crowds of demonstrators representing both side of the debate, traded insults.
Some have already vowed to appeal the bill at the Supreme Court.
"Yes to abortion, no to hypocrisy," read a poster held by Teresa Rivera, 57, who said she had been left in the street still anesthetized after having a clandestine abortion when she was younger.
"Excommunicate me," said another banner held by a woman in her 20s.
The new law will require city hospitals to provide the procedure within the first three months of pregnancy and opens the way for private abortion clinics.
Cuba, Guyana and Puerto Rico, a US territory, already have similar legislation.
Nationally, Mexico allows abortion only in cases of rape, severe birth defects or if the woman's life is at risk. Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile ban it completely.
The bill will take effect once it has been signed by the City's leftist mayor.
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