When It Comes to Reproductive Rights, Mexico Gives Me Hope Sarah DeVries - Mexico News Daily
go to original July 20, 2022

Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar. He called Mexico's decriminalization of abortion in 2021 'a new route of freedom, clarity, dignity and respect for all women.' (MND)

The United States is now poised for abortion to be illegal in roughly half of its states, just as much of the rest of the world, including Mexico, is moving in the opposite direction.

I’ve been alarmed and saddened about the actions taken in my own country but hopeful about Mexico’s movement in the opposite direction over the past several years.

My optimism rose when I read a piece the other day about Mexican Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar.

The Supreme Court of Mexico, while it has less power than the one in my country, has also had a few things to say on the subject of women’s rights, including abortion, in great part because of Chief Justice Zaldívar’s leadership.

In a unanimous vote, the court decriminalized abortion last year. While its legality is still technically up to individual states to decide, the Supreme Court’s actions have paved the way for access all over the country.

To paraphrase Záldivar: “We’re in favor of life – the life of the mother.”

I’ve written about abortion several times before, including the surprising landscape in Mexico as well as strategies for actually reducing the number of abortions that take place. (Hint: criminalizing it is not an effective way to reduce its incidence and, as Záldivar himself says, rich girls have always had access to abortions, meaning that what’s actually criminalized is poverty.)

I don’t feel much of a need to express myself further on the subject at this point – you can read my other articles about it if you want to know exactly what I think – except to say that a woman’s ability to control when and if she goes through a pregnancy and has children is everything.

Without that control, which comes via not just birth control but a general culture of respect toward women and their right to avoid coercive, unprotected sex — and, yes, the right to terminate a pregnancy — women’s possibilities for participating in the public spheres of society are near zilch, as has been the case for much of history.

When women have children, their lives are, quite simply, no longer their own.

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com and her page on Patreon.

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily

Related: ‘We’re Here’: Mexican Groups Slam U.S. Abortion Restrictions as They Help More American Women (NBCNews)

Related: Philanthropy Should Focus on Building Stronger Families — Not Supporting Abortion Advocacy (Philanthropy.com)

Related: Americans in Border States Are Traveling to Mexico for Abortion Medication (Hawaii Public Radio)

Related: To Get Banned Abortion Pills, Patients Turn to Legally Risky Tactics (Washington Post)

Related: Texas Abortion Seekers Turn to Mexico Amid Near Total Ban (La Prensa Latina)

  Learn about I Need to Abort Network

  Learn about Marie Stopes Foundation Mexico

  Learn about Las Libres