Safe and loving abortion: the care of companions

The fight for free and safe abortion to be a reality in Mexico has been won by the companions, who through groups, networks or independently take care of the sexual and reproductive rights of people with the capacity to gestate.

Beyond insisting on legalization, they put into practice a political commitment to claim the decision, autonomy and freedom of women.

They assure that, although there are legal advances in the matter, the challenges and obstacles will persist until the procedure is considered as something that is part of life.

Julia is a young woman who went to a public clinic of the Government of Mexico to have an abortion in 2020. The lack of access to information and the discretion with which health personnel request laboratory tests from women or the presence of accompanying persons forced her to return twice to be able to perform the procedure. Greta Rico

Two vans belonging to right-wing organizations are parked one morning in September 2022 outside the Centro de Salud T-III México - España clinic in Mexico City.

The lack of information and standardization of criteria makes it easier for these organizations to capture women to instill fear, misinform them and judge their decisions with conservative, religious and sexist narratives. Greta Rico

It has been 15 years since abortion was legalized in Mexico City, and yet many women do not know that the procedure is free or that home medication abortion is safe.

That is why the work of the collectives is so important.

In recent years, women in Mexico have taken to the streets with green and purple scarves characteristic of the feminist struggle and the fight for abortion in Latin America. Greta Rico

Marina Pedroza is an abortion companion and in 2020 she interrupted her own pregnancy at home, with medication, in the company of her friends in Mexico City.

"The day I had an abortion was very nice, I felt accompanied and cared for," she says. Greta Rico

Meztli Jiménez and Paulina Córdova are two of the founders of La Campamenta, a group of abortion companions in the capital of the state of Oaxaca, in the center of the country.

Each week they accompany between five and seven interruptions of pregnancy.

Most of the population that looks for them belongs to areas of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca and the outskirts of the city. Greta Rico

Since 2019 abortion is legal in the state of Oaxaca.

In the image, the hands of Meztli Jiménez and Paulina Córdova hold their phones, which show the profiles of La Campamenta social networks.

Their position as a group seeks to vindicate the interruption of pregnancy as an act of rebellion and joy. Greta Rico

The work of Meztli Jiménez and Paulina Córdova vindicates abortion that takes place at home as a safe practice for women.

They think that legality should not prevent women from accessing the procedure and that is why they carry out informed accompaniment for those who need it.

Greta Rico

For Paulina Córdova, accompanying abortions is to put the body and return to ancestral knowledge that Western medicine has taken from women, where only men tell them what they can or cannot do with their bodies.

From La Campamenta, collective spaces for the exchange and sale of objects such as fashion and beauty accessories are organized.

In addition, they carry out information and training sessions to learn the protocol for abortion at home with medications. Greta Rico

For Meztli Jiménez, accompanying abortion is a political gamble.

In her words: “The State is patriarchal and it is not the one who is going to decide whether or not we can accompany.

It's our body and we don't have to ask their permission."

Verónica Cruz, director of Las Libres, a social organization with 22 years of experience, is pleased that on September 28, a large part of the mobilization for the Global Day of Action for Access to Legal and Safe Abortion focused on requesting the decriminalization until the 12th week of gestation.

However, she points out that little is known in Mexico that no woman can be criminalized for voluntarily interrupting her pregnancy thanks to a sentence issued by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).

On September 7, 8 and 9, 2021, this court issued three rulings in which it determined that it is unconstitutional to criminalize abortion in Mexico, declared unconstitutional the 20 reforms regarding the protection of life from conception and requested that abortion be regulated. conscientious objection of health personnel.

In this way, "it was technically decriminalized and set the highest standards in terms of human rights, since its resolution means that they will never again criminalize those who abort, the companions, or the health personnel who practice a voluntary interruption" Cruz explained.

The lawyer adds that social decriminalization and destigmatization are far from happening.

There is confusion between the terms and what can be required of health services.

In the 33 Penal Codes of the country, the crime as such continues to exist, but at the national level it is possible to terminate a pregnancy by rape without any restriction and as of the Court's resolution, any investigation folder that is opened for this criminal type does not has foundation.

According to figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), only in 2022 in Mexico City, 127 investigation folders have been opened for the crime of abortion, the number at the national level exceeds 350.

Abortion in Mexico City, nothing to imitate

For 15 years in Mexico City, women can interrupt their pregnancy up to the 12th week of gestation, without this meaning that they will be charged with a crime, but doing so completely free of charge continues to be a challenge.

The information on the requirements, locations and hours of public clinics and hospitals is confusing or incomplete;

The awareness of the medical staff is not enough to provide a more humanized service and the number of consultations that are granted daily is exceeded by the high demand for the service.

According to figures from the Ministry of Health of Mexico City, from 2007 to date, 252,760 women have accessed an abortion for free.

In the year 2020, Julia Alós joined that number, when she decided to end her unwanted pregnancy and consulted on the agency's web portal how to access the legal interruption of pregnancy (ILE).

The first time she visited the Health Center T-III Mexico she Spain she was not able to get the service.

Although it was not listed as a requirement, they asked her for a blood test that she did not have, so she had to go a second time and arrive before five in the morning, as they informed her that the number of women they serve per day can vary. , but it is never greater than 10.

Marina Pedroza heard testimonies from friends who agreed with Alós' story.

High school classmates (the equivalent of high school in Spain) and university who said that, although "they were not treated badly", they did not feel comfortable with the comments they received either.

In 2017, a friend asked for help for her cousin who wanted to have an abortion at home.

Although she did not feel totally prepared, she decided to look for information, ask feminist groups "and venture to help the girl".

She from that moment she became her companion.

At 23, in her last year of university and during the pandemic, Pedroza also needed someone to accompany her when she decided to end her pregnancy.

“I never thought about going to a free clinic, and it was not an easy decision.

I did not go because I did not want to be questioned, or to see the pro-life groups that are outside the hospitals, ”she said in an interview with this newspaper.

Mexico City is the worst example of access to abortion due to the obsoleteness of its vision and the services it offers

Verónica Cruz, director of the organization Las Libres

"CDMX is the worst example because of its obsolete vision and the services it offers," says Verónica Cruz, director of the Las Libres organization.

The defender also explains that having managed to modify the Penal Codes in nine states to decriminalize the practice until the 12th week of pregnancy represents progress, but it does not guarantee that women can freely decide about their bodies.

Somehow, she clarifies, the wrong message continues to be sent that after the first trimester it is dangerous to abort, when even the World Health Organization's Manual of Clinical Practice for Safe Abortion is not decisive in that regard.

Within the framework of this report, calls were made to the 11 clinics and hospitals that offer the ILE service in CDMX.

Only two received a response.

In the TIII Miguel Hidalgo Health Center, the answer was that procedures are only attended until the 9.6th week of gestation (nine weeks and six days).

While at the Dr. Nicolás M. Cedillo Maternal and Child Hospital, they reported that it was necessary to perform an ultrasound to verify that they are less than 12 weeks pregnant, otherwise there is a risk of losing their lives.

On Monday, September 19, 2022, the T-III Mexico Spain Health Center was visited to see the facilities and care firsthand, but that day the ILE service was not provided, an end that was communicated to those who were waiting to be seen until three hours after entering the waiting room of the medical unit.

A vision for access to abortion in complex contexts

Oaxaca is an extremely diverse State, and where severe social inequalities persist.

It is made up of 540 municipalities (some of them with forms of autonomous government), more than 25% of its population speaks an indigenous language, 39.6% is in a situation of moderate poverty and 24.3% in a situation of poverty. extreme.

Even with this complexity, in September 2019 Oaxaca became the second Mexican entity to decriminalize this procedure up to the twelfth week of pregnancy.

Currently, the Legal Interruption of Pregnancy service is carried out free of charge in two Public Hospitals (one in the central area of ​​the State and another on the coast) and in the Women's Clinic (also in the Central Valleys region). .

When calling these institutions, only two of them answered.

In the Women's Clinic, they also specified that only five daily procedures are granted and it is necessary to be less than 10 weeks and six days pregnant.

The figures of the local Ministry of Health are not public or open, but thanks to the information provided by a local media, it can be verified that in three years only 379 procedures have been carried out.

Meztli Jiménez and Paulina Córdova met in 2017 during a call to add Oaxaca to the Marea Verde, a wave that was born in Argentina and flooded all of Latin America.

Since then, they began to train as abortion companions, and have taken several courses and workshops on how to accompany with medication, even after the 12th week of pregnancy.

They know that for many women making the decision not to carry their pregnancy to term can be complex and depends on factors such as fear, uncertainty and even violence.

La Campamenta is a group from which they carry out actions so that abortion is safe, free, loving and accompanied.

During 2021, both women created La Campamenta, a group from which they carry out actions so that abortion is safe, free, loving and accompanied.

They celebrate the decriminalization in Oaxaca, but assure that the Legal Interruption of Pregnancy service is not considering "the context of the State."

Beyond the fact that there are communities that are located seven hours away from the Oaxacan capital, in rural locations, where even access to mobile phones or the Internet is extremely complex, the possibility of accessing information becomes almost impossible.

As part of their accompaniment, they have developed strategies to send the drugs to indigenous communities or very small towns, passing them off as costume jewelry.

“They can buy it at the pharmacy and the price is accessible, but we know that there are places where there is only one pharmacy for the whole town and that if they are going to buy it, they will know what they want it for and they will be judged, for We send that completely free,” Jiménez and Córdova say.

Something vital for La Campamenta and other escort networks is emotional follow-up during the procedure, as well as providing all possible information about the dose, effects, emotions and even the pain that may occur so that women can decide freely.

“For us, that is the right to decide how, with whom and where we want to abort;

do it how we women want and not how the doctors say what is best for us”.

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