- The decriminalization of abortion enables conditions for safe abortion, guaranteeing human rights, overturning false beliefs and lack of access to quality services.
- From April 2007 to June 2024, 27% of those accessing abortion services in CDMX were from the State of Mexico. Now, people will be able to access these services without having to leave their state.
Today, November 25, 2024, as part of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the green tide advances in our country by decriminalizing abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation in the State of Mexico.
Ipas Latin America and the Caribbean (Ipas LAC) celebrates this advance that represents an important achievement for the reproductive rights of women, girls, adolescents, transgender and non-binary people. The legalization of abortion implies progress in the defense of the right to life, health and dignity, especially in a context where child and adolescent pregnancy rates are high. Forced pregnancies are a form of gender violence and access to safe abortion is a possibility to break the circles of structural violence.
“Having laws that enable abortion facilitates access routes so that people can decide, so that no motherhood is forced and so that people’s lives are not put at risk with early pregnancies or unsafe abortions,” says Fernanda Diaz de Leon, Ipas LAC’s deputy director of Advocacy. ” Forced pregnancy means forced motherhood is the darkest face of the violation of sexual and reproductive rights.
- In 2023, the State of Mexico ranked 2nd nationally with the highest number of births to girls under 15 years of age, with a record of 805 pregnancies in this sector.
- That same year, there were 27,887 births to teenage mothers between the ages of 15 and 19.
- Both figures (under 20 years of age) represent 15.3% (27,887) of the total number of births in the state (187,299)[1].
The municipalities in which girls aged 10 to 14 registered the most births were:
- Ecatepec de Morelos 8.4 %.
- Nezahualcoyotl 4.9 %.
- Toluca 4.7
In 8 out of 10 cases (651), girls under 15 years of age reported that the men responsible for impregnating them were older than 14 at the time of the birth of their children. Ipas LAC’s (2020) research, “Sexual Violence and Child Pregnancy,” shows that in most cases the man responsible for the pregnancy is twice or three times their age.
Historically, the lack of access to legal, safe and free abortion has disproportionately affected those living in poverty, far from health services and in rural areas; people with disabilities, indigenous people, Afro-descendants and migrants; as well as victims of sexual violence, especially if they are girls or adolescents.
In 2020, the State Justice Procurement Centers of the State of Mexico registered 59 reports of girls and adolescents, between 10 and 14 years old, victims of sexual abuse, harassment, stalking, simple or equal rape. However, it is estimated that 97.3% of rape crimes are not reported, according to the National Survey of Victimization and Perception of Public Safety (ENVIPE, 2022).
According to the Official Mexican Norm NOM-046, which establishes criteria for the prevention and care of family and sexual violence and violence against women, abortion for rape is decriminalized without time limits throughout the country, but barriers to access still persist. Legalizing abortion facilitates access to this service and information free of criminalization and stigma is made known to all people in Mexico.
What’s next for the State of Mexico?
The legalization of abortion reduces the risk of death and complications caused by unsafe procedures. Abortion is a very safe procedure when performed under adequate conditions, i.e., with trained personnel, access to services and quality supplies and technology, as stated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Guaranteeing the legal termination of pregnancy enables the conditions for health services to provide these services and gives certainty to the health personnel who provide them; but it also makes it easier for this procedure to occur in a self-managed manner with medication and through networks of abortion escorts, who provide guidance and accompaniment from a distance, and can now count on a legal backing of non-criminalization.
To learn more about common myths surrounding abortion, you can consult the document: 10 public health facts to understand the importance of decriminalizing abortion, by Ipas Latin America and the Caribbean.
[1] INEGI: Birth Statistics: http://www.dgis.salud.gob.mx/contenidos/basesdedatos/da_nacimientos_gobmx.html
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Coordinadora de Vinculación con Medios, Ipas LAC Irene Vázquez Gudiño +52 55 3428 0544 [email protected]
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