Tucson.- The saying that only the “rich” in Mexico could go to the United States to have an abortion has been reversed and now there are more and more Latinas and non-Latinas from American Republican states who restrict abortion found in neighboring country a lifeline to end their pregnancies.
Sandra Cardona, director of the I Need to Abort network in Nuevo León (Mexico), told EFE that calls seeking help have skyrocketed since the abortion restrictions implemented by several states starting in 2022 when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.
She said in a telephone interview that they began receiving an average of up to 500 calls and emails a month from women in the United States.desperate because they could not have a abortion in his country”.
“We receive calls from all kinds of women. Latinas, immigrant women who are afraid to go to clinics in the United States because of their immigration status, or even women who don’t even speak Spanish and we have to use a translator to help them,” Cardona explained.
He indicated that the network offers them a series of free services, but in general they have two options: travel to Mexico or receive by mail the medications they need to have an abortion.
Cardona said that women come to the clinic with a lot of fear because of the social stigma and taboo that abortion still represents in their cultures.
“We do not want to leave any woman without access to a safe abortion and receiving the scientific information she needs,” said the activist.
In your opinion, if women are determined to end their pregnancy, they will do it, legally or clandestinely.
“We are now in different times. Now, through social media, all women can access information on how to have an abortion,” she said.
She recalled that decades ago in Mexico there was the slogan “only rich women have abortions,” referring to wealthy women who traveled to the United States to have an abortion when it was illegal in their country.
“Look how things are, now it is the complete opposite,” he stressed.
Cardona said they also receive calls from immigrant women, some of whom fear irregular status, and some who were raped on their way to the United States.
The network sends these women the medications so they can have the abortion at home, Cardona explained.
“More and more women are choosing to receive the medication at home,” she added.
Cardona explained that they now receive an average of between 250 to 350 calls and messages per monthbut not because fewer women are seeking help, but because more support groups have emerged in Mexico.
A Mexican migrant who asked to remain anonymous told EFE that she had to go to her country to have an abortion, surprised that she could not do so in Arizona, where it can only be done up to 18 months. 15 weeks pregnant.
Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion nationwide
As restrictions in the United States increased, a social movement emerged in Mexico to end the penalties imposed on women who underwent abortions.
In 2023, in a landmark decision, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that abortion is legal nationwide.
In Arizona, reproductive rights groups such as Arizona Abortion Access have raised more than 800 thousand signatures to submit abortion to a plebiscite in the elections of next November and to change the state Constitution.
If approved, it would prohibit the state from implementing any type of restriction on having an abortion until 22 or 24 weeks of pregnancy, and would allow it in more advanced pregnancies for a rape or health or mental problems of the mother.
The initiative would prohibit any doctor or clinic from being sued for providing these services to a woman.
“We are convinced that this proposal will be on the ballot; we have collected the largest number of signatures in the history of the state to bring legislation before voters,” Cheryl Bruce, director of the campaign, told EFE.
Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota will be voting on similar laws in November, while at least four more states are still voting. efforts to bring their initiatives to the ballot boxes.
Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota are voting on similar laws in November, while at least four other states are still working to get their initiatives to the ballot box.
