Like US, Mexico faces a state-by-state divide over abortion

Differences over abortion have pitted one large batch of U.S. states against another — one group imposing sweeping bans, the other intent on making abortions accessible

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ - Associated Press
Nov 4, 2022

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — Differences over abortion have pitted one large batch of U.S. states against another — one group imposing sweeping bans, the other intent on preserving access to abortion. To a remarkable extent, that’s also the case in America’s southern neighbor, Mexico.

Ten of Mexico’s 32 states have decriminalized abortion — most of them in just the past three years. Even in some of those 10 states, for example Oaxaca, abortion-rights activists say they face persisting challenges in trying to make abortion safe, accessible and government-funded.

Continued: https://www.corsicanadailysun.com/national/like-us-mexico-faces-a-state-by-state-divide-over-abortion/article_bdd7052b-6bb4-583d-a253-81e483bee755.html

Mexico’s Quintana Roo state decriminalises abortion

The move comes about a year after Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that penalising abortion was unconstitutional.

Published On 26 Oct 2022

The Mexican state of Quintana Roo has voted to decriminalise abortion, becoming the latest area to ease restrictions on the procedure as part of a “green wave” demanding greater reproductive rights across Latin America.

Nineteen lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour with three against, approving a change in the law that would decriminalise abortion for women up to 12 weeks pregnant and remove a requirement for rape victims to report their abuser to access abortion.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/26/mexicos-quintana-roo-state-decriminalises-abortion

26.10.2022

Quintana Roo Feminist Network

Mexican, Colombian Supreme Court Justices Discuss Path to Abortion Rights at Petrie-Flom Center Forum

By Julian J. Giordano, Asher J. Montgomery
Oct 24, 2022

Supreme Court justices from Mexico and Colombia, Alfredo Guitérrez Oritz Mena and Natalia Ángel Cabo, discussed abortion rights in their respective countries at a panel hosted on Friday by the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School.

The panelists discussed decisions issued by the Supreme Courts of both Mexico and Colombia in the last two years that expanded abortion access. In September 2021, the Supreme Court in Mexico ruled in September 2021 that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion as a crime. Colombia’s top court issued a ruling in February that legalized abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/10/24/latin-american-abortion-rights-talk/

24.10.2022

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News

Alfredo Guitérrez Oritz Mena

Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe

Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
October 18, 2022

Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.

“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/

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

USA – The New Abortion Underground

Stephania Taladrid reports on a network of volunteers distributing abortion medication to women in states that ban the procedure. Plus, Andrew Sean Greer on his new novel, “Less Is Lost.”

With David Remnick
October 14, 2022
25-minute podcast

Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the contributor Stephania Taladrid has been following a network of women who are secretly distributing abortion pills across the United States. The network has its roots in Mexico, where some medications used for at-home abortion are available at a lower cost over the counter. Volunteers—they call themselves “pill fairies”—are sourcing the pills at Mexican pharmacies and bringing them over the border. The work is increasingly perilous: in states like Texas, abetting an abortion is considered a felony, carrying long prison sentences. But, to Taladrid’s sources, it’s imperative. “I mean, there’s nothing else to do, right?” one woman in Texas, who had an abortion using the medication she received from a pill fairy, said. “You can’t just lie down and accept it. You can’t.”

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/the-new-abortion-underground

14.10.2022

self-induced abortion

Mexico – Sonoran activists march to demand access to abortion care

By Kendal Blust
Thursday, September 29, 2022

On Sept. 28, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Hermosillo, Sonora, to recognize International Safe Abortion Day, when, for decades, people across Latin America have protested to demand abortion rights.

Women chant “we must abort this patriarchal system” as they march through the streets of Hermosillo Wednesday night. Such protests have become an annual tradition in Sonora and across Mexico, part of a growing movement to make abortion care legal across the country.

Continued: https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1813713/sonoran-activists-march-demand-access-abortion-care

29.09.2022

This Mexican clinic is offering discreet abortions to Americans just over the border

August 31, 2022
LILLY QUIROZ, NPR

TIJUANA, Mexico — In the months since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Luisa García has noticed a sharp and striking trend: More Americans are seeking her clinic's services in Tijuana, Mexico.

García is the director of Profem Tijuana, where people can get abortions just a few steps across the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/31/1119886629/abortion-mexico-roe-wade-ban-texas-supreme-court-border-tijuana

31.08.2022

Luisa Garcia

Profem Tijuana

Roe v. Wade

Texas Equal Access Fund

’I need an abortion’: The text that gets pills sent in secret

Leire Ventas, BBC News Mundo, Los Angeles
Aug 25, 2022

Anna*, 23, knew that she could not have another child. She also knew that she wouldn't get an abortion in Texas, where she lives, as the state has one of the strictest abortion laws in the United States.

So the mother of a four-month-old turned to social media to search for solutions. She found a number online, and sent a desperate text on WhatsApp: "I need an abortion".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61874921

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