Film Highlights Unique Model for Supporting Mexican Women During Medical Abortion Ipas.org
go to original September 17, 2014

Accompaniment (full version with subtitles) | This video documents the successful accompaniment network model developed by Mexican NGO Las Libres to support women in the restrictive State of Guanajuato through the process of medical abortion. (IpasOrg)

Aiming to inform and inspire organizations and advocates around the world, Ipas partner Las Libres has produced a short documentary film detailing its successful “accompaniment model” that pairs women seeking medical abortion with women committed to accompanying others on a volunteer basis throughout the process of a safe abortion.

Las Libres Executive Director Verónica Cruz says the documentary, “Accompaniment,” is important because the accompaniment model is one of a kind, and because people should be able to see “the other face of abortion”—the positive and accompanied experience.

“At Las Libres we were tired of hearing that abortion is almost always a negative experience for women,” Cruz explains. “We have seen that the majority of women experience it in a positive, liberating way … the women usually come back after the experience of a safe, accompanied abortion to share with us their feelings of freedom, autonomy, respect.”

Based in Mexico’s Guanajuato State where abortion is legally restricted, Las Libres has been working for years to advance women’s right to access safe abortion. The accompaniment model they’ve developed trains a network of volunteers to counsel women on how to safely use medical abortion, or abortion with pills, to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Volunteers also accompany women throughout the abortion process and support them in various ways depending on each woman’s preferences and needs.

Accompaniment can include going with the woman to the pharmacy to obtain the pills, being with her for emotional support when she takes the pills, and/or sending text messages and making phone calls to check in throughout the process and make sure there are no complications. In other words, accompanying a woman in her decision to have an abortion includes responding to all the ways stigma impacts abortion.

Read the rest at Ipas.org

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