Enlarge image
Verónica Cruz and her fellow campaigners want to provide women in the USA with abortion pills and accompany them virtually through the abortion
Photo: MARIAN CARRASQUERO / The New York Times/ Redux / laif
They come in the mail in a padded envelope, seven pills, one large and six small, stored in a black plastic box, unlabeled and sealed with tape.
The packages that thousands of women in Brazil and Mexico get delivered to their homes every year look something like this – for many, the only sure way to an abortion.
The pills contain the active ingredients misoprostol and mifepristone and trigger a medical abortion.
They are ordered by phone or WhatsApp, feminist doctors or women's rights organizations secretly pass on the numbers.
Because in most Latin American countries, abortion is considered a crime, and women are in prison because of it.
It is true that women's rights movements in some important countries on the continent have recently achieved success: First, Argentina overturned its abortion ban in December 2020;
then the Supreme Court in Mexico ruled that punishing abortion was unlawful.
In Chile, the constitutional convention is currently negotiating their legalization.
The United States of America is now moving in the opposite direction: Driven by Republicans and conservative, Catholic and Evangelical groups, the right to abortions in the USA is to be restricted more and more.
This has been the case in the state of Texas since last September
so-called »Heartbeat Bill«, a law that bans abortions as soon as a heartbeat can be proven in the embryo. This can happen as early as the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant. What has long been a reality for women in Latin America could soon also affect unintentionally pregnant women in more and more places in the United States: They have to resort to non-legal avenues for an abortion.
Feminists from Latin America are now promising help – after all, they have decades of experience in how to circumvent the criminalization of abortion.
"We won't let these women down," says Mexican women's rights activist Verónica Cruz. "We already organize and support abortions in Texas and will continue to expand our activities." Cruz has been campaigning for women in Mexico for 25 years and has more than 1,000 Supports abortion and is currently working with activists across the border on a plan for the US.
"The United States has always been our role model when it comes to abortion rights," says Cruz. "The fact that we've come a step further and the United States is going backwards, that's frightening."
Cruz began campaigning for women's rights when her conservative home state of Guanajuato wanted to pass a law that would put even victims of sexual violence after an abortion in jail. After protests, the bill was withdrawn. But for the women it was still almost impossible to find doctors for the procedure. At that time, Cruz personally knocked on their doors, took the women to the clinics and accompanied them during their abortions.
"A real revolution" was the arrival of the misoprostol pill 20 years ago: "Suddenly we didn't need doctors anymore." The drug, which was actually developed to treat stomach ulcers, is highly effective in terminating a pregnancy up to the twelfth week .
The World Health Organization includes it on its "Essential Drugs" list and has issued a protocol for the off-label use of misoprostol as an abortion pill.
As a result, Cruz and her colleagues from the Mexican organization Las Libres (The Free) created a well-developed network to help unintentionally pregnant women on the continent, especially poorer ones who cannot afford an expensive procedure in a secretive private clinic.
If you can't pay for the pills, you get them for free.
In the meantime, the activists have switched almost completely to virtual accompaniment, also as a result of the pandemic. They send instructions via WhatsApp or email and have their own app. If someone needs to talk, they call. “Women can do the abortion at home without their parents or husband knowing anything about it,” says Cruz.
Complications are extremely rare. If the bleeding is exceptionally heavy and the women are worried, the activists recommend going to a clinic. In countries like Brazil, however, they then advise taking out the pills inserted vaginally beforehand - otherwise women could be sued, especially those who cannot afford a lawyer. 'In prison we only meet poor women. I've never met a rich woman incarcerated for an abortion," Cruz says. Danger also looms from dubious suppliers who sell ineffective pills either over the Internet or on the black market in favelas.
But while tens of thousands of women around the world still die every year from unsafe abortions - it is difficult to calculate the exact numbers - the medical method is considered very safe when used correctly - and will probably gain in importance in the future.
Because not only in Texas the rights of women are to be massively restricted.
Numerous other states, including South Dakota and Mississippi, are planning restrictive laws.
aim
the anti-abortion advocate is to overturn a landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling called Roe vs. Wade, which for five decades guaranteed American women's right to an abortion. It is considered likely that this will be achieved by the Supreme Court justices appointed by ex-President Donald Trump, as the majority of the Supreme Court is now conservative. As a result, up to 26 states could ban abortion, according to research by the Guttmacher Institute, a nongovernmental organization that advocates for reproductive rights.
"There are now different ways to help women," says Mexican activist Cruz.
On the one hand, unintentionally pregnant women could travel to Mexico and then have a medical abortion in one of the border cities such as Tijuana or Ciudad Juárez, with the support of women's groups.
Texas women are already taking advantage of this opportunity.
Second, people from the US would already enter Mexico, where the pills are freely available in pharmacies and at a low price, and then bring them back across the border.
The medication can then be sent by post.
At the moment, Cruz's fellow campaigners in the USA usually still bring the pills personally to the women.
"It's a system of mutual solidarity, you don't give yourself away."
The Texas "Heartbeat Bill" is also so perfidious because the ban is particularly aimed at doctors and helpers.
The law will be enforced with the help of private individuals who denounce and report helpers and be rewarded with up to $10,000.
"We have a huge advantage," says Cruz, "we're based in Mexico, the law doesn't apply to us, we can look after the women online from here without any problems."
The plan is nevertheless extremely delicate, after all it is a matter of foreign activists who are specifically trying to circumvent US laws.
Pro-life groups from the USA are already alarmed and are considering how to stop the Mexicans.
In Brazil, feminist doctors report fake requests or phone calls designed to frame them as abortion workers.
Cruz, who despite her activism in Mexico has never had problems with authorities or been reported, is not unsettled by this.
She sees her plan as a kind of reverse development aid for the United States.
"We're not afraid," she says, "we're not on the side of crime, we're on the side of human rights."
This contribution is part of the Global Society project
Expand areaWhat is the Global Society project?
Under the title »Global Society«, reporters from
Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe
report on injustices in a globalized world, socio-political challenges and sustainable development.
The reports, analyses, photo series, videos and podcasts appear in a separate section in the foreign section of SPIEGEL.
The project is long-term and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
A detailed FAQ with questions and answers about the project can be found here.
AreaWhat does the funding look like in concrete terms?open
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has been supporting the project since 2019 for an initial period of three years with a total of around 2.3 million euros - around 760,000 euros per year.
In 2021, the project was extended by almost three and a half years until spring 2025 under the same conditions.
AreaIs the journalistic content independent of the foundation?open
Yes.
The editorial content is created without the influence of the Gates Foundation.
AreaDo other media also have similar projects?open
Yes.
Major European media outlets such as The Guardian and El País have set up similar sections on their news sites with Global Development and Planeta Futuro, respectively, with the support of the Gates Foundation.
Did SPIEGEL already have similar projects? open
In recent years, DER SPIEGEL has already implemented two projects with the European Journalism Center (EJC) and the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the "OverMorgen Expedition" on global sustainability goals and the journalistic refugee project "The New Arrivals" as part of this several award-winning multimedia reports on the topics of migration and flight have been created.
Expand areaWhere can I find all publications on the Global Society?
The pieces can be found at SPIEGEL on the Global Society topic page.