Vatican denied a Mexican priest 

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, categorically denied on Friday that Pope Benedict XVI has called on Mexican authorities as a form of pressure to approve major anti-abortion laws. 

"This is baseless news. The Pope has never behaved like that, neither in the past and this time," said Vatican spokesman told AFP. 

Pope's spokesman said the news also has been denied by the authorities involved. 

"All have denied all," he said. 

A Mexican bishop said the Pope's call was instrumental in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Mexico this week endorsed two local laws considered anti-abortion. 

The Court also denied 

The news was indeed denied Friday by the Supreme Court. 

"Almost lost, but a call from the Pope, do not know who, do not ask me, it changed everything," said Jose Isidro Thursday, Bishop of Mexicali, capital of Baja California (northwest) to discuss the close vote in the Court . 

The bishop's version was refuted in a brief statement from the press office of the Supreme Court, which denied the existence of the alleged call from the Pope and said that "the ministers resolved only guided by their legal criteria." 

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected, by just one vote, two resources that demanded legal reforms declared unconstitutional pro-abortion in Baja California and San Luis Potosi (north), arguing that since the time when conception occurs, a living there. 

In 2008, the Supreme Court endorsed a law of Mexico City that allows termination of pregnancy during the first 12 weeks of gestation. 

Since then, amid a campaign by the Church and conservative groups, 18 of the 31 states that comprise Mexico reforms were approved based on the idea that from the time when conception occurs, there is a living being . 

Feminist organizations and lawyers critical of these reforms have warned about the risk of enshrining this principle as a constitutional norm, as conservative criterion judges could consider abortion as infanticide with aggravating circumstances, such as being committed by a relative, and impose sentences of up to50 years in prison.