MEXICO CITY – Mexico's Supreme Court was poised Wednesday to uphold legal abortion in the capital despite deep opposition elsewhere in the heavily Catholic country.

Eight of the 11 Supreme Court justices said during deliberations that they would vote against declaring the law unconstitutional. Eight votes would be needed to strike it down, but only three judges have spoken in favor of doing so. The justices were expected to take a formal vote within the next couple of days.

“To affirm that there is an absolute constitutional protection of life in gestation would lead to the violation of the fundamental rights of women,” said Justice Sergio Valls.

Mexico City made it legal last year for doctors to terminate a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks, part of a package of socially liberal measures passed by the capital's leftist-dominated assembly last year. Lawmakers also approved gay civil unions and passed protections for terminally ill people who reject medical treatment.

The federal Attorney General's Office and National Human Rights Commission appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that city assemblies can't make health laws.

Elsewhere in Mexico, abortion is allowed only in cases of rape, when the mother's life is in danger or if the fetus has severe deformities.

Most Latin American countries allow abortion only if the woman's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest. In 2006, Nicaragua banned abortion in all cases. Cuba permits abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, as does the United States.

Since the law took effect, more than 12,000 women have had abortions at the 14 Mexico City hospitals providing them, according to the city health department.

Of those, 20 percent have come from outside the capital, said Raffaela Schiavon, who directs the international abortion rights group Ipas and has been advising the city government.

The law has exposed deep divisions in a country where abortion had rarely been at the forefront of public debate.

Anti-abortion groups have marched against the law and urged doctors to refuse to perform the procedure – a choice the law allows.

Most doctors in Mexico City's hospitals refuse to perform abortions, Schiavon said, but the city has tried to make abortions accessible by creating a hot line for women and opening counseling centers in hospitals.

“Despite all of the obstacles and the conscientious objections, the service is working,” Schiavon said. “Doctors, nurses and social workers have lived up to the commitment with a lot of generosity.”

During a protest Tuesday, the anti-abortion group Pro-Vida performed ultrasounds on two pregnant volunteers, broadcasting the fetuses' heartbeats on loudspeakers outside Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts.

“We have the right to choose about our body but we don't have the right to end the life of a human being,” said Martha Gasca, who is 20 weeks pregnant.

“They are not thinking about the psychological damage that the girls who have abortions go through,” she said, adding that she considered aborting her first child until she found the support of Pro-Vida.

On the other side of the debate, the Network of Young People for Sexual and Reproductive Rights vows street protests if the court overturns the law.

Schiavon said a court decision against the appeal “would be a historic ruling that recognizes the importance of this problem from the point of view of public health and women's rights.”