Mexican abortion-pill networks reach across U.S. border to help immigrants without access

By Marien López-Medina, Kevin Palomino, April Pierdant and Tori Gantz
Sep 9, 2023

MONTERREY, Mexico — Verónica Cruz Sánchez watched something remarkable happen from the office of her women’s rights organization in Guanajuato, the capital city of one of this country’s most conservative Catholic states.

Founder of Las Libres — “the free” in English — she had built an underground abortion-pill network in a country where having the procedure could have meant going to jail.

In September 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court issued a surprise ruling that abortion was no longer a crime — not even in places like Guanajuato, where it continues to be outlawed by the state.

Continued: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/mexican-abortion-pill-networks-reach-across-u-s-border-to-help-immigrants-without-access/article_75ac1598-4d93-11ee-bd66-d34ec1a86685.html

Hundreds of Americans a week are seeking abortion help from Mexico – and most of them want a safe hand-off of abortion drugs at the border

Isabella Zavarise and Azmi Haroun
Aug 21, 2022

Over the last decade, Mexico's movement to access abortion has notched several victories in the halls of justice. But north of the border, the landscape of abortion availability continues to move in the opposite direction.

Fifteen years ago, abortion was a crime in Mexico. In 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court challenged the ruling, stating that abortion would no longer be criminalized. In states like Mexico City and Oaxaca, abortion is legal. Now, Mexican advocates told Insider that Americans are crossing the border for support that is difficult to find – or illegal – in some US states.

Continued: https://www.businessinsider.com/hundreds-of-americans-a-week-are-seeking-abortion-help-from-mexico-2022-8

She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. So She Went to Mexico.

Mexico is emerging as an unlikely savior for U.S. women desperate to terminate their unintended pregnancies.

By Emily Green
18.5.22

MONTERREY, Mexico — Fernanda had been on birth control for more than 10 years, so she went into denial when her period didn’t come. Finally, she rented a car and drove to the nearest abortion clinic two and a half hours away, in San Antonio. But then a nurse said the embryo had a heartbeat, and told Fernanda that she wasn’t allowed to get an abortion because her pregnancy was too far along.

“The staff was friendly, but they could not give me the pill,” said Fernanda, 29, a nursing student in Laredo, Texas. “They told me I was six weeks and five days pregnant. They told me to go to Oklahoma to get the abortion pill over there.” A 10-hour drive from Laredo, the trip was both too far and too expensive for her.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kbgwy/she-couldnt-get-an-abortion-in-texas-so-she-went-to-mexico

MEXICO – Supreme Court rules that risk to health is grounds for the right to a legal abortion

MEXICO – Supreme Court rules that risk to health is grounds for the right to a legal abortion

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
May 17, 2019

The Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) has written to share another historic win for abortion in the Mexican Supreme Court! They report:

Margarita’s doctor told her that if she continued the pregnancy, she was at risk of serious health complications – pre-eclampsia, diabetes, small bowel obstruction, thrombosis and malnutrition. Yet she was denied an abortion. Six years after she was denied a legal abortion, the Mexican Supreme Court released a unanimous ruling on 15 May 2019 in favour of the legal stay presented by GIRE. The ruling confirms that the denial of abortion when a woman’s health is at risk is not only a violation of this right, but also a violation of her right to life, personal integrity, non-discrimination and reproductive autonomy. The ruling emphasized that “risk to health” not just “risk to life” was grounds for this right.

The ruling was overwhelmingly positive, recognizing from a gender perspective that, for women, the right to health must include access to abortion when their health is at risk. The Court also emphasized women’s specific need for reproductive health services and the impact that the denial of abortion when their health is at risk has on their lives.

This case also demonstrates the unwavering dedication of GIRE’s team. For six years, we were committed to securing justice for Margarita, and as a result, we will now be able to use this ruling to ensure that public health institutions guarantee abortion services to all women whose health is at risk, upon their request.

SOURCE: E-mail from Regina Tames, Executive Director, GIRE, Mexico, 16 May 2019
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Source: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/mexico-supreme-court-rules-that-risk-to-health-is-grounds-for-the-right-to-a-legal-abortion/

18.05.2019