NEWS & LETTERS, Janurary-February 2010
Abortion in Mexico
Mexico City--Abortion is stigmatized in Mexico, opposed by the argument of "preservation of life." But there is a double standard. The PAN (Party of National Action, the current party in power) does nothing to secure a life free of violence for the children. They are everywhere living on the street, or sexually exploited.
The State believes itself the owner of Mexican womens' bodies and free will; presently, women can be incarcerated for having an abortion. We view this as fascist. During the PAN's two six-year stints in power, the far Right unleashed the most serious scandals, including child pornography and molestation, and a rise in out-and-out femicide.
Women continue to die because of botched back-alley abortions done by crooks who are sheltered by the State. When becoming a mother is obligatory, women are reduced to the role of procreators, obligated by law and custom. The media shapes public opinion by demonizing abortion. Women in Mexico live in a state of economic crisis, which compels them to make these decisions.
Wouldn't it be better if the State took it upon itself to promote sex education and prevention? There's an embedded stubbornness around teaching sex education in schools. The State argues it would encourage kids to have sex at a younger age. Youth are denied a responsible sexual dimension to their lives and made to think of sexuality as taboo, dirty and perverse.
Having an abortion is a decision that isn't easy for anyone. We are defending the decriminalization of abortion. We aren't criminals, we are women defending our bodies and decisions.
In Mexico they won't catch drug traffickers, rapists, or murderers, but don't hesitate to hunt down women who have just made what is probably the most difficult decision of their lives. Women are labled "crazy" and "murderers" when they don't want to be mothers because of lack of economic resources; or when their pregnancy is the result of rape; or the baby won't survive the pregnancy. The State forces women to carry fetuses to term that are products of rape. It's a crime to be a woman, and to be a poor woman is a thousand times worse.
The state cannot meet the basic demands of society: education, housing, food, democracy, justice, health, peace, freedom, dignity, work, autonomy. They don't have any justification to criminalize what is in the end a decision for women to make about our own bodies.
We are not political capital to be given and taken away, we are owners of our own bodies.
--Raquela Vázquez and Yosahdara Vega
Translated from Spanish by Brown Douglas
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