Inside Mexican Feminists’ Fight For Safe and Legal Abortion

Rebecca Grant on the Battle for Reproductive Freedom in Latin America and Throughout the World

By Rebecca Grant
June 24, 2025

Abortion had been a federal crime in Mexico since 1931, but every state within the country permitted abortion for pregnancies that resulted from rape, and others allowed it if the life of the mother was in danger or in the event of severe fetal anomalies. So when the legislature in Guanajuato, a state in central Mexico, proposed in 2000 to revoke the lone exception to the state’s abortion ban, Verónica “Vero” Cruz thought something along the lines of “Oh hell no.” Eliminating the provision would have resulted in a total ban in a place plagued by sexual violence, and Cruz, a respected activist and the leader of Las Libres, a recently formed feminist collective in Guanajuato, was not about to let the meager sliver of abortion rights that existed in her state shrink any further, or women’s well-being to be used as a political pawn. Something had to be done.

Continued: https://lithub.com/inside-mexican-feminists-fight-for-safe-and-legal-abortion/

Vital abortion-related content is apparently being blocked by Meta – potentially putting women at risk

The tech company, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp amongst others, has reportedly blocked or limited access to abortion providers
By Kimberley Bond

22 May 2025

The tech giant Meta has been accused by abortion providers of limiting their content in the US and Central America.

MSI Reproductive Choices (an international non-government agency that provides reproductive healthcare) and Plan C Pills (an information resource helping people with understanding safe, at-home abortions) claims Meta, which owns social media platform Facebook and messaging service WhatsApp, have censored their services.

The WhatsApp for Business account of the leading abortion provider in Mexico, Fundación MSI (part of MSI Reproductive Choices), has been suspended, which has led to an immediate 80 per cent drop in people booking appointments. WhatsApp was the primary channel for people seeking reproductive care, with MSI Reproductive Choices now fighting to get the platform reinstated.

Continued: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/health/a64849730/meta-block-abortion-content/

Yucatan Legalizes Abortion up to 12 Weeks: Landmark Decision!

Apr 10, 2025

Yucatan has become the 23rd out of 32 states in Mexico to decriminalize abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation. This move is seen as a significant step towards ensuring reproductive rights for women and those who can become pregnant.

On Wednesday, the Yucatan Congress voted in favor of the decriminalization, with 22 votes for and 13 against. The Women's Secretariat of the Government of Mexico hailed the decision as a "historic breakthrough in the fight for reproductive rights" in a social media post.

Continued: https://www.rivieramayanews.mx/yucatan-23rd-mexican-state-to-decriminalize-abortion-up-to-12-weeks/

10.04.2025

News

abortion law reform

GIRE

Information Group on Reproductive Choice

Yucatan decriminalization

‘We are failing’: doctors and students in the US look to Mexico for basic abortion training

Since Roe was overturned, a growing number of would-be abortion providers have begun to leave the country in search of an education as training in the US dwindles

Carter Sherman
Wed 9 Apr 2025

On paper, it should not be difficult for Dr Sebastian Ramos to learn to perform abortions. As a family medicine doctor, Ramos works in a specialty that frequently provides the procedure. He lives in deep-blue California, where it is still allowed. And the administrators running Ramos’s residency program – a kind of apprenticeship that US doctors must undergo to become full-fledged physicians – support Ramos’s desire to learn how to do it.

But over the course of his three-year-long residency, Ramos is guaranteed just three days’ worth of training at Planned Parenthood. Residents get to participate in only a handful of abortions.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/doctors-mexico-abortion-training

New Research Finds Potential Alternative to Abortion Pill Mifepristone

The research could further complicate the polarized politics of abortion because the drug in the study is the key ingredient in a pill used for emergency contraception.

By Pam Belluck and Emily Bazelon
Jan. 23, 2025

A new study suggests a possible alternative to the abortion pill mifepristone, a drug that continues to be a target of lawsuits and legislation from abortion opponents.

But the potential substitute could further complicate the politics of reproductive health because it is also the key ingredient in a contraceptive morning-after pill.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/health/abortion-pill-ella.html

Decriminalization of abortion in Mexico spurs international calls for stronger reforms

Daniela Pulido | Facultad de Derecho PUCP, PE
November 30, 2024

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called on Mexican authorities to strengthen abortion access and eliminate remaining criminal code barriers after the Congress of the State of Mexico voted to decriminalize abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

HRW emphasized that while the State of Mexico’s reform marks substantial progress, implementation remains crucial. The organization advocated for comprehensive service delivery and the complete removal of remaining legal barriers that might discourage healthcare providers or patients.

Continued: https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/11/decriminalization-of-abortion-in-mexico-spurs-international-calls-for-stronger-reforms/

30.11.2024

News

abortion law reform

Congress of the State of Mexico

decriminalization of abortion

State of Mexico Congress Votes to Decriminalize Abortion

Authorities Should Ensure Access to Care, Wide Dissemination of Legal Protections

Nov 28, 2024
Human Rights Watch

(Toluca) – The vote by the Congress of the State of Mexico on November 25, 2024, to decriminalize abortion in all cases during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is a significant step forward for reproductive rights in the country’s most populous state, Human Rights Watch said today.

Once enacted, the reform will remove all criminal penalties for abortion within the first trimester. It will align the State of Mexico with 18 other states in the country that have already decriminalized abortion following the landmark 2021 ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court, which found the absolute criminalization of abortion unconstitutional.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/28/state-mexico-congress-votes-decriminalize-abortion

28.11.2024

News

Congress of the State of Mexico

Cristina Quijano Carrasco

decriminalization of abortion

Mexico / Malta – These two women are making abortions possible for those whose governments won’t allow it

“Our aim is to guarantee free and safe legal abortions to rape survivors”

September 27, 2024

Verónica Cruz Sánchez, for Amnesty International

Years ago in Guanajuato and throughout Mexico, abortion for survivors of rape wasn’t available. While it was technically legal, our government did not provide the services women and girls needed.

We created our feminist organization Las Libres (the Free Ones) in 2000 because we wanted to promote women’s rights and be there for those who had been raped. It seemed completely inhuman to think that these girls would have to bring these pregnancies to term. We wanted to make sure their rights were upheld, so we formed a network of gynaecologists, along with psychologists and lawyers to help guarantee the right to free and safe abortion. We also wanted to support girls and women who wanted to terminate unwanted pregnancies at home without medical supervision by accessing abortion pills for free.

Continued: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2024/09/these-two-women-are-making-abortions-possible-for-those-whose-governments-wont-allow-it/

27.09.2024

Commentary

abortion decriminalization

Amnesty International

Isabel Stabile

Las Libres

Verónica Cruz Sánchez

Mexico: Inadequate Abortion Access in State of Mexico Violates Human Rights

State Government Should Fully Decriminalize Abortion
August 13, 2024
Human Rights Watch

(Mexico City) – Authorities and healthcare providers in the state of Mexico, the nation's most populous state, are failing to guarantee access to abortion care, even in cases in which it is permitted under state law, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Despite nationwide strides towards recognizing access to abortion as a constitutional and human right, the state of Mexico continues to criminalize abortion, allowing exceptions only in cases of rape, “negligent abortions,” risk to the pregnant woman’s life, or when the fetus has “serious congenital or genetic alterations.”

The 44-page report, “Navigating Obstacles: Abortion Access in the State of Mexico,” found that the state’s abortion law does not guarantee access to this essential service, even for legally eligible cases. Barriers to access include healthcare providers denying or delaying services, withholding necessary information, questioning the veracity of sexual violence survivors' statements, subjecting women to mistreatment, and imposing arbitrary requirements for access that contradict existing law and regulations.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/13/mexico-inadequate-abortion-access-state-mexico-violates-human-rights

Meet the Mexican women smuggling abortion pills into the US

The right to abortion is becoming one of the defining issues of the upcoming US presidential election. With abortion banned in 14 US states, activists from neighbouring Mexico have mobilised to distribute abortion pills to American women.

4 August 2024
By Sara Tomevska

At the highly policed border crossing between Mexico and California, an organised drug smuggling operation is underway.

The drug in question? Abortion pills.

Mexican activist Crystal waits up to four hours a day to bring the pills across the border, where they're mailed to thousands of American women in states where abortion – once a constitutional right – is now a crime.

Continued: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/article/meet-the-mexican-women-smuggling-abortion-pills-into-the-us/hqpnakc6a

04.08.2024