Translated by Cecilia Ayala
Civil social groups, such as the Balance organization through its Fondo Maria [Maria Fund], are seeking that, like the women in the Federal District [Mexico City], women who reside in other Mexican states can have access to a legal and secure abortion without being discriminated against.
Some data reveal the extent of the problem: According to a report by the Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), from April 1, 2007, to July 31, 2012, 127 women were convicted for the crime of abortion in 19 states.
Since 2007, when the Federal District Legislative Assembly (ALDF) approved the decriminalization of abortion up to the 12th week of gestation and until February of this year, the clinics of the Secretary of Health (SS) in the capital have performed 95,925 safe abortions. According to SS data:
- 73.2% of the women who accessed this service live in Mexico City; while
- 23.5% came from the State of Mexico; and
- 3.3% came from other states or from outside Mexico.
- 47.9% of women who agreed to a legal abortion were between 18 and 24 years;
- 45.5% were single;
- 38.9% had high school education; and
- 82.9 % were Catholic women.
The female population that does not live in Mexico City cannot access a legal abortion. Since decriminalization of abortion in the nation's capital, 17 states amended their constitutions to "protect life from the moment of conception-fertilization".
With these reforms, conservative groups sought to avoid the possibility that their states might also decriminalize abortion, prompting the criminalization against women who try to terminate their pregnancies.
Feminist organizations support women residing in other states to ensure that they have access to a legal interruption of pregnancy in the nation's capital.
In Mexico, access to abortion depends on the woman's place of residence and her socioeconomic status, i.e., it is a "social justice issue and discrimination," according to the report "Failure and Indifference: Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Mexico" prepared by the GIRE.
Abortion: An Option, Not a Crime
Oriana López, project coordinator for the Balance organization, explains that following the example of funding in the United States aimed at supporting free and voluntary motherhood for women, the Abortion Fund for Social Justice "Women, Abortion, Reproduction, Information and Support" [Maria, for its Spanish acronym], better known as the Fondo María [Maria Fund] was created.
The Maria Fund is a project that supports women who have an unwanted pregnancy and helps them to decide whether they want to interrupt a pregnancy, starting from the point of view that abortion is an option and not a crime. The activist clarifies that the Maria Fund does not force women to have abortions, because they consider it is their right to decide.
From May 2009 to 2013 the fund has supported some 1,750 women to have legal pregnancy interruption [ILE].
Although financial support is provided through the Maria Fund, its main contribution is to make known that women who do not reside in Mexico City can come to the capital to access ILE safely and without risk to their life. López describes how the Maria Fund works in two ways to supporting women who:
- come directly to public clinics (Clinic Beatriz Velazco de Aleman, Clinic Santa Catarina and Clinic Marta Lamas); and those who
- contact the group before coming to the city.
Oriana López states that many kinds of cases arrive at the Maria Fund, and there is no particular profile of users, but she explains that many women arrive accompanied by their families or their partner, and there are also single women, divorcees and young women.
Private Clinics: Another Option
Private health services also do their part. With the same idea of offering the ILE to women in Mexico City and to women in other states, in 2008 in Mexico City opened the private Marie Stopes Clinics. Since then and until 2013, these clinics have supported more than 50,000 women in deciding on their motherhood and interrupting unwanted pregnancies by means of safe procedures.
Carla Eckhardt, director of the Marie Stopes Clinics Mexico, believes that women should know they have options and that unsafe abortions kill.
"What we want to avoid is that women in desperate times make decisions that are bad for them. It is best to be informed and to call our number."Eckhardt explains that the Maria Stopes Clinics help women of all ages, but 50% of their users are young women younger than 24 years. She clarifies that although there is no user profile, the most recurrent case is a single woman, age 26, and a resident of Mexico City. However, she adds, there are many women who come from the State of Mexico and many others from within the country.
The Marie Stopes Clinics, the María Fund and Mexico City's Secretariat of Health, together with other organizations such as Mexfam, work to save women from unsafe abortions and, in many cases, to bring these services closer to those who do not have this right. Spanish original