Mexico's Choice: Abortion Laws and their Effects

Mexico's Choice: Abortion Laws and their Effects Throughout Latin America
By Sarah Faithful, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
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In 2015, a 21-year-old woman named Patricia Mendez miscarried a 20-week old fetus in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. While lying in a hospital, police and detectives arrived, stood at the side of her bed, all while saying, “Confess, you have committed the worst sin in the world.”[i] Stories such as this are becoming more common not only in Mexico, but in other Latin American countries as well, where the laws pertaining to abortion slowly have become a pathway to humiliate, stigmatize, or charge innocent women. The 2007 decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City was hailed as a major victory by women’s reproductive rights groups, such as the National Abortion Federation, throughout Latin America and the world.[ii]

Since then, however, abortion laws in other Mexican states have continuously become stricter, and the penalties have worsened for women who have received abortions. Under current Veracruz law, Mendez has been charged with having an abortion and could be subject to “educational measures.”[iii] However, “nobody really knows what the term [educational measures] means, since it is not defined [within the law] and has yet to be enforced.”[iv] Though her lawyers have currently stalled these charges, the issue remains that Mendez has been persecuted for an event she had no control over. Women are being condemned after already suffering the trauma associated with miscarriages and stillbirths, or are being stigmatized for making the difficult decision of having an abortion.

Though the argument between pro-life and pro-choice is not one that can be solved overnight, this current treatment of women is not the answer to unwanted pregnancies, mothers with poor prenatal healthcare, or clandestine abortions.

If you missed previous COHA articles you can view them here:

• Former Right – Wing Brazilian Strongman Eduardo Cunha Seeks Revenge
(September 23, 2016)
• Macri's Balancing Act: The Argentine Energy Struggle (September 21, 2016)
• It Was Not a Coup (But it Was Still Wrong)
(September 19, 2016)

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