As Mexico expands abortion access, activists support reproductive rights at the U.S. border

BY MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ
October 13, 2023

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — It’s Sunday night and Crystal P. Lira is not answering her messages. Inside the headquarters of Colectiva Bloodys y Projects, an organization that has supported reproductive rights near the U.S.-Mexico border since 2016, her only concern is for the woman she has provided with a safe space to get an abortion.

Lira, who lives in Tijuana, in northern Mexico, is one among dozens of Mexican “acompañantes” — volunteers who support women wanting to terminate a pregnancy. Located all over the country, most acompañantes offer virtual guidance through an abortion protocol in which no clinics or prescriptions are needed.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-legal-abortion-access-activists-470863cf5a9101b7ffb12bd323e3466b


Thousands of women march in Latin American cities calling for abortion rights

By Megan Janetsky & Debora Rey, The Associated Press
Sep 28, 2023

MEXICO CITY — The streets of cities across Latin America were bathed in green Thursday as tens of thousands of women marched to commemorate International Safe Abortion Day.

Latin American feminists have spent decades fighting to roll back strict prohibitions, although there are still few countries with a total ban, like El Salvador and Dominican Republic.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/09/28/thousands-of-women-march-in-latin-american-cities-calling-for-abortion-rights/


Winning the right to abortion: the revolution of Latin American women

When Roe v. Wade was repealed in the United States, decades of progress in the struggle for reproductive rights were threatened. But across the Western Hemisphere, the tide has recently been in favor of the right to choose, with the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico

Beatriz Guillén
SEP 10, 2023

Simone de Beauvoir once said: “Never forget that a political, economic or religious crisis will be enough for women’s rights to be questioned again. These rights are never to be taken for granted; you must remain vigilant throughout your life.” It was an omen. Such a situation occurred in June 2022, when the United States Supreme Court repealed the right to abortion in the country, 50 years after it was encoded into law.

The repeal of Roe v. Wade proved that changes in political or judicial power could put past victories into jeopardy. It dealt a blow to the decades of struggle; however, it failed to stem the tide throughout the Western Hemisphere. In Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico, the justice systems have recently decriminalized the interruption of a pregnancy at the federal level. These rulings have emerged as beacons of hope in the defense of women’s reproductive rights in the Americas.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-10/winning-the-right-to-abortion-the-revolution-of-latin-american-women.html


EXPLAINER: Abortion access has expanded but remains difficult in Mexico. How does it work now?

Fabiola Sanchez, The Associated Press
Sep 08, 2023

MEXICO CITY — The decision by Mexico’s Supreme Court ending federal criminal penalties for abortion was a boost to activists who waged decades-long campaigns for safe abortion access nationwide. The mostly Catholic country still has significant barriers to overcome before Mexican women gain universal access.

Twenty of Mexico ‘s 32 states have laws classifying abortion as a crime that allow exceptions only in cases of rape. Some also include exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger, or if there are severe fetal anomalies.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/explainer-abortion-access-has-expanded-but-remains-difficult-in-mexico-how-does-it-work-now


Latin America women’s rights groups say their abortion win in Mexico may hold the key to US struggle

Women’s rights activists in Latin America have long looked to the United States as a model in their decades-long struggle to chip away at abortion restrictions in their highly religious countries

By MEGAN JANETSKY, Associated Press
September 7, 2023

MEXICO CITY -- Women's rights activists in Latin America have long looked to the United States as a model in their decades-long struggle to chip away at abortion restrictions in their highly religious countries.

But after a historic Mexican Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing abortion on the federal level, some think U.S. activists should now turn to their counterparts south of the border as they navigate a post-Roe v. Wade reality.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latin-america-womens-rights-groups-abortion-win-mexico-103018403


Mexican Supreme Court’s abortion decision expands access to millions, stands in contrast to US

By Fabiola Sánchez And Megan Janetsky, The Associated Press
Sep 7, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The decision by Mexico’s Supreme Court to invalidate all federal criminal penalties for abortion opened access for millions of people in the sprawling public health system a year after the court’s U.S. counterpart went in the opposite direction.

Wednesday’s ruling did not have the same immediate impact as Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing women’s access to abortion. But it was a dramatic change in this predominantly Catholic nation that could lend momentum to efforts to legalize abortion across the country.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-abortion-decriminalize-supreme-court-82cd9798abe91106fda1e7afddf91c34


Latin American abortion rights activists just notched another win in Mexico

The Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide. It’s a big deal for the whole region.

By Nicole Narea
Sep 7, 2023

Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide Wednesday, making it one of many Latin American countries that has eased restrictions on the procedure in recent years.

Wednesday’s decision comes after a narrower 2021 ruling that decriminalized abortion only in the state of Coahuila, which sits along the US-Mexico border. Though some states moved to liberalize their laws around abortion since that ruling, federal law defining abortion as “unconstitutional,” as well as laws penalizing medical providers who perform the procedure, still stood until Wednesday. Now, abortion will become available in all federal Mexican health institutions in every state where women could have previously faced criminal penalties for undergoing the procedure.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/9/7/23863267/mexico-abortion-decriminalize-supreme-court-ruling


Mexico’s Supreme Court upholds abortion rights nationwide, paving way for federal access

By Gabriella Borter
September 6, 2023

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a federal law criminalizing abortion, reaffirming an earlier ruling that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional and allowing the federal healthcare system to provide services.

Mexico's highest court, which consists of 11 justices, declared that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional in 2021, but the ruling only applied to the northern state of Coahuila, where that case originated.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-supreme-court-upholds-abortion-rights-nationwide-paving-way-federal-2023-09-06/


Mexico decriminalizes abortion, extending Latin American trend of widening access to procedure

BY FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ AND MEGAN JANETSKY
September 6, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion Wednesday, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access.

The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The ruling will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/mexico-abortion-decriminalize-d87f6edbdf68c2e6c8f5700b3afd15de


On the US-Mexico Border, a New Model for Abortion Access Is Emerging

BY ALICIA FÀBREGAS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAHÉ ELIPE
October 14, 2022

It’s 1 a.m., and Crystal can’t sleep. She is in a hotel room in Monterrey, Mexico, and she is thinking about a meeting tomorrow where she will speak in front of US representatives from North Carolina, New Mexico, and Texas and senators from Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. All of these officials are Democrats, some come from activist backgrounds, and they are visiting Monterrey in order to learn how networks of women in the north of Mexico are helping other women—including women who live in the US—to get safe abortions.

For six years, Crystal, who asked that we only use her first name, has been an acompañanta, a member of a network of Mexican women that informs and supports other women throughout the abortion process. The acompañantas’ goal is to prevent any woman from feeling alone when facing the obstacles—legal and otherwise—of ending a pregnancy. Crystal gets up and opens her laptop to refine her speech. She reads it out loud several times to practice. She wants to be able to look her audience in the eyes.

Continued: https://www.vogue.com/article/abortion-access-tijuana