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The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project |
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Every issue archived online at mexicosolidarityproject.org |
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When Women Can’t be Mothers |
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Mother or whore. God and the devil. Adam and Eve — blame Eve! Women’s sexuality is godly only when exercised for procreation. Everything else, a sin to be punished. The Christian tradition that dominates the lives of both US and Mexican women leaves no room for nuance.
Those of us, including me, who accidentally became pregnant before Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court that legalized abortion, remember the agony of making the right choice — and struggling to carry out that choice. Women and their children have long suffered abuse, poverty, and shattered dreams because of being denied choices and access to reproductive health care. Witness, for instance, the pregnant women now stuck at the Mexican border, often with other children, often the victims of rape.
The US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, and in several states now, an abortion can lead to arrest. Desperate women are seeking help, and more and more of them are finding it in México.
In a reprint of a previous issue, we talk to Verónica Cruz Sánchez, founder of Las Libres (Free Women), which frames women’s rights as human rights. Las Libres has helped change the narrative for women, communities, and the Mexican nation — which decriminalized abortion in 2021 —so that the choice isn’t about being a mother or a whore. The core question for pregnant women: can they ensure their own health and their child’s health if they have the baby?
I would have loved the help of Las Libres when I found myself in a panic. Today, more and more women from Texas and other parts of the US are turning to Las Libres so that they don’t face the dangers of an unwanted pregnancy. Motherhood is indeed godly — when the time is right. |
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Want to Know More about México? |
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Women in Mexico Win Reproductive Choice |
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In 2006, the New York-based global advocacy group Human Rights Watch honored Verónica Cruz Sánchez, founder of Las Libres, with its prestigious annual Defender of Human Rights award for her work expanding women's rights. Cruz has helped free countless women imprisoned for abortion and miscarriage, and, in 2021, México finally decriminalized abortion, after a long campaign that Cruz and other activist women waged. |
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You founded Las Libres in 2000 in Guanajuato, one of the most conservative states in México. What was the problem you saw? |
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Men throughout México have not supported social, economic or political gender equality. Domestically, men don’t share responsibility for housework or childcare. Nor do they pay child support. And the epidemic of femicides shows that our society does not value women’s lives. No wonder — in this environment — that women haven’t had the right to make autonomous reproductive decisions. |
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When I found out years ago that over 2,000 women nationwide were serving prison sentences for deciding to end an unwanted pregnancy, I felt enraged. Women were even getting imprisoned for miscarriages! Those women, the suspicion went, must have somehow caused the loss of the baby. I joined with other activists in a fight to free all these imprisoned women and change the penal code to decriminalize a woman’s choice. |
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A big part of our work has been getting women to realize that they don’t have to accept violence or infringement of their bodily autonomy, that to get justice they must be bold and have the courage to make complaints.
Who is responsible for charging women with these “crimes?” |
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This largely Catholic society deems women’s sexuality to be criminal. In one case in Guerrero, an indigenous woman had an extramarital affair, became pregnant, and had an abortion. Her father and uncle filed charges against her. No investigation took place. Local prejudices passed judgment upon her. She was sentenced to 22 years! |
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Mexico City, Sept. 28, 2020. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell |
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Society, on the other hand, celebrates men’s sexuality. If a married man sees other women, he’s considered cool. In fact, if a married man doesn’t have affairs, he’s branded either a fool or gay. |
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But your movement succeeded in decriminalizing abortion — in a deeply Catholic nation!
Yes, last September, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled penalizing abortion unconstitutional. In our campaign, we separated “beliefs” from “rights,” religious from social. Now today more and more women are speaking out publicly about their own choice to abort. This encourages other women to seek the reproductive services they need without shame. |
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Under some of the new laws we’ve been able to pass, only girls younger than 12 need parental consent for an abortion. Child and teenage mothers are giving birth to 1,000 babies every day in México, often from rape or arranged marriages. |
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Do women have enough access to reproductive health services? Do non-medical people play a role in guaranteeing a good experience? |
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We favor medically induced, non-invasive abortions that can be done in the safety and privacy of home, with either in-person or virtual support from a woman in our network. But some women prefer to abort in a medical setting, and only hospitals have enough providers. That means limited access in rural areas. But no one at least need worry about cost. National health insurance covers these procedures. In one case, a state’s medical services sent, free of charge, a helicopter to pick up a girl who lived in the mountains. |
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abortion inducing drug Mifepristo |
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México is far ahead of the US in terms of women’s right to choose. Due to the drastic cuts in abortion services in the US, you get calls for help from across the border. What message do you have for us? |
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We are happy to help all women! We can get them the medications for at-home abortions, and provide virtual accompaniment to support them through the procedure.
US women, please remember that things here in Guanajuato used to be much worse than what women are experiencing now in Texas. So don’t give up hope. Remember that we have a resource — the solidarity of women — that goes beyond money. And we women, contrary to what some men in power believe, count as people too. Remind male policy makers, at every opportunity, that no one can claim to support human rights without supporting the rights of women. |
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Update: Since January, 2022 after Roe fell, Las Libres has worked with more than 20,000 US residents. “Today, any Mexican woman can go to a drug store to buy the medication (inducing abortion) knowing it’s legal, that it’s not a crime… They have all the options,” Cruz said. That’s why today, Las Libres supports “many more women from the US than from Mexico.”
And with abortion access shrinking in the US, Americans’ reliance on Mexico will continue to grow. |
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RENATA RULES! |
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Renata Turrent is an expert in public policy, and is presently subdirector of the online magazine Sentido Común (Common Sense). She has collaborated with other public and private media. Renata is professor of economic development and an economics postgraduate at the National Autonomous University in México City (UNAM). |
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It was an amazing week for Renata Turrent!
On November 30, 2023, she received the National Prize for Journalism for her work as associate director of the online magazine, Sentido Común. |
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“I’m honored to receive the national award for journalism,” Renata Turrent wrote on X. Modest as ever, she continued, “While I received it, in reality it belongs to the marvelous team, the Editorial Board, to all those who collaborate in this beautiful space, and of course, our extraordinary Director, Fabrizio Mejía.” |
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And just a few days earlier, on November 27, Claudia Sheinbaum, Morena’s candidate for president of Mexico, named Renata as one of her nine-member pre-campaign team for the 2024 national elections. Renata will be the liaison coordinator with academic sectors.
Other members of Sheinbaum’s team include three of the other candidates who competed with her for the Morena nomination, the president and the secretary general of the Morena party, the former Secretary of the Economy, and two others.
The pre-campaigns run until January 18, when the campaigns begin in earnest!
That’s Renata on the right. Congratulations! |
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Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media, |
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Abby Vesoulis, Mexico Has Become a Haven for Americans Seeking an Abortion Mother Jones. When the US Supreme Court delegated the ability to restrict abortion to individual states in June 2022, more than a dozen states moved to immediately ban or place strict limitations on abortion. Almost overnight, Mexico reemerged as the more progressive country fighting for reproductive rights.
Jacinto Rodríguez Munguía y José Reveles, Toda La Verdad Sobre Los Vuelos De La Muerte Fábrica de Periodismo. Hace más de 20 años el Ejército mexicano comenzó una investigación sobre los crímenes cometidos por el Estado durante los años de la Guerra Sucia: el Secretario de Defensa autorizó la operación de estado para asesinar a cientos de personas y luego arrojarlas al mar.
Judd Legum, Kushner’s Mexican Connection Popular Information. Kushner has a history of trading access to Trump for promises of favorable treatment: evident once again in Donald Trump’s November 9 interview with Univision.
Étienne von Bertrab, Negar el genocidio Pie de Página. Pese a que carece de relevancia en el ámbito internacional la comentocracia mexicana tiene a sus propios negacionistas del genocidio.
Alex Vasquez, Mexico’s Sheinbaum Names Party Heavyweights to Campaign Team Bloomberg. Appointees include friend of the México Solidarity Project Renata Turrent and Partido Trabajo’s Marxist Senator Gerardo Fernández Noroña.
Sharon SMoG, Presenta Claudia Sheinbaum a su equipo de precampaña presidencial De Raíz. El equipo de precampaña de Claudia Sheinbaum fue presentado oficialmente, destacando la paridad de género y asegurando que lo primordial será el trabajo en unidad y por el bien de los mexicanos.
Jesus Cañas and Diego Morales-Burnett, Mexico’s economic momentum continues; outlook improves Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Mexico's economy expanded for an eighth consecutive quarter, driven by domestic consumption and industrial activity.
Raúl Díaz, Jornada laboral de 40 horas semanales es frenada otra vez sdpnoticias. A falta de un mes para que termine el 2023, pinta prácticamente imposible que se ponga en marcha desde este año la propuesta de decreto para reducir jornada laboral a 40 horas semanales.
Mexico's minimum wage will rise by 20% next year, to about $14.25 USD per day ABC News. The minimum wage has risen steadily above the rate of inflation, year over year from $5.12 USD per day in 2018 when President AMLO initially took office.
Mateo Crossa Niell, Migración, nearshoring y maquilas El Universal. “El volumen del ruido triunfalista que celebra con bombo y platillo los beneficios del nearshoring para México sólo oculta el agravio cada vez más profundo a la población trabajadora que, desamparada y expulsada de sus países de origen, no encuentra más medios de sobrevivencia que someterse a las líneas de producción maquiladora.” |
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The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of México as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and México’s national sovereignty.
Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs. To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us! |
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