López Obrador proposes that abortion be decided in a public consultation

The green shock wave generated in Argentina after the approval on Wednesday of a law that guarantees free and free abortion up to 14 weeks, eyes have now turned to Mexico, a beacon of the continent's political left and one of the engines of the feminist movement, in search of advances in the social agenda towards women.

The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which has a majority in both chambers, has proposed this Thursday, however, to submit the decriminalization of abortion to a public consultation because it is a "very controversial" issue on whose future "they should not decide structures of power ”, but women.

López Obrador has indicated that “on these issues where there are points of view for and against (…) the best thing is to consult the citizens, and in this case, I repeat, the women.

There are mechanisms to request a consultation, ”said the president who appealed to article 35 of the Constitution, recalling that citizen consultations can be binding.

"We have argued that it is an issue that must be consulted and on which women must decide freely," he said this Thursday.

According to the president, the issue of abortion should not be a matter of religious or political beliefs.

“If it is considered that this is necessary, important, there is a way for it to be decided, that power structures do not intervene.

This is not a matter for the government or the powers or the churches, but rather a matter for women (…) on very controversial issues, it is best to consult it ”, he said during his morning press conference.

The response, however, has not satisfied the feminist groups that oppose their rights being submitted to consultation and have demanded that their party, the Movement for Democratic Regeneration (Morena), which has governed for two years, assert her vast majority in Congress and the Senate to pass a federal law allowing the legal termination of pregnancy.

Faced with other public consultations already carried out, such as the Mayan Train, and others planned, such as the one to be held in June on the possibility of prosecuting former presidents, the abortion issue flies over without materializing despite the fact that Mexico is at the forefront of the OECD in adolescent pregnancies with 77 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 years.

Currently only two states, Mexico City and Oaxaca, have free abortion services up to the 12th week of gestation, that is, a law of time limits where no reason should be indicated for requesting the intervention.

The capital, also governed by Morena, approved it in 2007 and Oaxaca, last year.

In all state penal codes abortion is tolerated in the event of rape and each entity adds other assumptions, such as danger to the life of the mother or fetal malformations.

In practice, however, aborting in some areas of Mexico is an unpleasant and violent odyssey for many women during which they can be reported even in the medical center.

The Government has launched a National Strategy for the Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy, which seeks to reduce the 340,000 annual births among children under 19 years of age and the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, has stated on several occasions that the pregnancies of girls they should be considered rape.

After the approval in Argentina early Wednesday morning of free abortion up to 14 weeks, one of the most unexpected reactions came from the president's own family.

José Ramón López Beltrán, López Obrador's eldest son, celebrated the news on social networks and said that in Mexico “it's our turn”.