MEXICO CITY — On the five-hour bus ride from Guadalajara to this capital city, Rocio Medeles cried over her misfortune.
She was a 26-year-old single mother, pregnant by a man who was about to marry someone else. In the past, she would have been presented with a stark choice: Have the baby, or risk permanent damage to her health at one of Guadalajara's many underground abortion clinics.
But in April, legislators decriminalized abortion in Mexico City's Federal District, about 350 miles away. Since May, more than 3,400 women have received abortions at 14 of the capital's public hospitals.
"If it hadn't been for the option to go to the Federal District, I probably wouldn't have risked a clandestine abortion," said Medeles, who traveled to Mexico City for the procedure in September with her 6-year-old daughter. "I might have had the baby, although I probably would have given it up for adoption."
Abortion remains illegal in the rest of Mexico, as it is in nearly all of Latin America. A group of activists, most of whom are Roman Catholics, routinely picket public hospitals here to condemn abortion.
But in Mexico City, legalization is bringing a profound, if quiet, change to the way thousands of women lead their lives. In a country where unwanted pregnancies often strip women of their independence and ambitions, the extraordinary number of legal abortions taking place every day is beginning to diminish the procedure's considerable cultural stigma.
"When people think of abortion, they no longer think of a hidden, shameful, illegal, clandestine and expensive procedure that is full of risks," said Marta Lamas, who founded Mexico's leading abortion rights group in 1992.
Ana, a 22-year-old Mexico City law student, decided to have a legal abortion after much soul-searching and worry.
"I thought about being pregnant with my studies half-done, with my parents yelling at me, and my boyfriend desperate about money," Ana, who asked that her last name not be published, wrote in an e-mail to The Times. "I thought, 'I don't want this for my life.' "
Ana's experience at a Mexico City public hospital included pre- and post-abortion counseling sessions. Like most women undergoing abortions at public hospitals here, she paid nothing for the procedure.
City officials say a range of women and girls have had abortions at the city's hospitals since May, including at least one 11-year-old. A quarter came from outside the city, officials said, some from as far as Baja California, more than 1,000 miles away.
