On April 24, 2007, in a watershed moment in deeply Catholic, conservative Mexico, the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City legalized abortion for women in their first twelve weeks of pregnancy. The reform also reduced the punishment of women who have abortions after the first trimester from 1 to 3 years in prison to 3 to 6 months of community service. While Mexico City has taken an important step towards guaranteeing the rights of women to terminate unwanted pregnancies, the rest of the country has far to go. Beyond the capital city, abortion remains illegal, except in cases of rape or if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. In the state of Yucatán, the law also allows for socio-economic factors; abortion is legal if the mother already has three children. Given that an estimated 500,000 women per year have illegal abortions in Mexico, and that unsafe abortions remain a serious cause of maternal mortality nationwide—as well as the fact that poor women are disproportionately burdened with the consequences of lack of access to safe, legal abortions (rich women can afford to pay private doctors or travel abroad)—the struggle for the decriminalization of abortion is central in the broader movement for women’s rights nationally. This article looks at the factors that created the political environment that made de-criminalization of abortion in Mexico City legal in order to create a framework for thinking about how similar reforms could be passed in other states. The International Context There have been international campaigns for the de-criminalization of abortion in Europe and the U.S. since the 1960s, and particularly in more recent years – with the help of increased communication technology – international women’s rights groups, family planning organizations and other pro-choice actors have influenced and provided allies for similar organizing in Latin America. At the same time, the U.S. government has negatively impacted the efforts of organizations and health care institutions towards achieving comprehensive women’s rights. Since 1984 when Ronald Reagan signed the Mexico City Policy, which effectively denied U.S. federal funding to any organization providing abortion-related services. Clinton rescinded the policy in 1993, but it was reinstated again by George W. Bush. The Vatican, a powerful moral voice in Mexico, has also been one of the most vocal opponents of the decriminalization of abortion. During the 2006 and 2007 debates in the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City, the Vatican threatened to ex-communicate city council members who voted in favor of the reforms and called abortion a forma of “terrorism.” Domestic Context The strongest opponent of the legalization of abortion within Mexico was the Catholic Church hierarchy. Priests and bishops organized widely against the reforms as they were being debated in the Legislative Assembly. The Bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas warned that to legalize abortion in Mexico City would be “a crime comparable to those of Hitler.” The PAN, president Calderón’s political party and the party that has most sought to present a self-image of morality in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church, has also fervently organized against the decriminalization of abortion. The PRD, Mexico City’s mayor’s party and the party that holds the most seats in the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City, has made efforts to publicly separate itself from the Catholic hierarchy. Some of the non-governmental actors that have most actively been involved in organizing for the legalization of abortion—such as Catholic Youth for the Right to Choose, Holistic Women’s Health, the Mexican Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, the Mexico City Secretary of Health, and the Mexican Foundation for Family Planning—pressured and formed alliances with the PRD to pass the legislation. The Media Perhaps the most powerful story in the Mexican media to prep the national imaginary for a more serious discussion of abortion was the case of Paulina, a 13-year old girl who, in 1999, was raped by a thief who broke into her house in the middle of the night. Though her mother reported the rape and requested abortion services, Paulina was denied her right to abortion in the case of rape. Though the state prosecutor granted permission to have the abortion, authorities at the Mexicali State Hospital, to which she was admitted on a number of occasions, refused to carry out the procedure, telling her mother that she could become infertile, hemorrhage or die as a result of the procedure. The state Attorney General personally took her to see a priest. This case was picked up by the national press and gave a face to the abortion debate in a case where a legally-sanctioned abortion was systematically denied by state authorities. The case was brought to federal courts and ruled as “negligence” by the state. In contrast to the traditional conservative notion that abortion is immoral, in this case, the denial of abortion was presented in the mainstream media and ruled nationally as irresponsible and neglectful. During the following years, the Legislative Assembly of Mexico City began to loosen the policies that criminalized abortion. In 2006 and 2007, the PAN paid for a number of television advertisements urging the Legislative Assembly to vote against the reforms that allowed legal abortions up to 12 weeks, one of which featured a judge condemning a woman to an abortion. The commercial was withdrawn when the Supreme Court filed a complaint of the ludicrous portrayal and the message sent to the public that judges had the power to sentence a woman to an abortion as punishment. Many other commercials featuring fetuses and threats of political parties to destroy them, among other manipulated images, persisted. As in most polemics and issues of political importance, the media exercised immense power in swaying the public consciousness. Despite the negative media, however, enough people were able to mobilize around the PRD’s proposed reforms that Mexico City was successful in passing them. Making Laws Effective Of course, laws are only one part of the problem to guaranteeing women the right to legal abortions. Laws aren’t useful if people don’t know about them, nor are they effective if resources aren’t allocated to make their implementation possible. In a survey of youth taken in 2000, less than half knew the legal status of abortions in their state and, of those, 82% believed that abortion is never legal. Rights education and the de-stigmatization of abortion are important tasks at hand all over the country. Towards implementing the reforms in Mexico City, non-governmental organizations and city government bureaus have set up hotlines and counseling services and organized a multi-disciplinary consciousness raising campaign. The Mexico City Department and various health organizations have collaborated to provide comprehensive health services in public general hospitals and to train health care workers and counselors, as it was found that few providers had previous training. Towards Similar Achievements in Other States . At a conference recently in Oaxaca, which brought together different non-governmental organizations to discuss strategies for making the right to a legal abortion the right of all Mexicans, not only Mexicans from the capital, a woman from the Huaxyacac Collective stood up to express her frustration: “How can we pass a similar reform through our Oaxacan state legislature when it’s entirely dominated by the PRI? In Mexico City it happened because they have a majority PRD legislative assembly. But in Oaxaca, how?” The woman was right. Given the deep conservatism of Oaxacan politicians and their characteristic unresponsiveness to the demands of their constituencies, it seems unlikely that the decriminalization of abortion will happen any time soon here. But does that mean the answer is to mobilize around the PRD in an attempt to increase their seats in the state congress? Even if that is the sentiment of many activists working to guarantee legal abortions, it struck me that in that conference, we were listening to a panel of experts preaching to a very small choir. The leading organizers for access to abortion and women’s rights—Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentaria y la Equidad, Colectivo Huaxyacac, GAEM, Ddser to name a few— are all strapped for time and resources, but it seems like there is plenty of work to be done among the people of Oaxaca, many of whom also share the conservative tendencies and harbor the prejudices imposed by Catholic patriarchy. Grassroots education among teachers, within public schools, and among health care workers seems like where the bulk of the work needs to be done. It is frequently reported in Oaxaca that even when abortion is legally necessary, doctors and nurses are not trained in (or are unwilling to carry out) what should be a simple procedure. While abortion is legal in some cases in all states, lack of training among health care providers seems to be a widespread problem. Training health care workers and de-stigmatizing abortion among society as a whole is necessary to guarantee pressure towards legalization. Though the political party climate remains unfavorable to any kind of progressive reforms, the movement towards ensuring all women the right to safe, legal abortions requires establishing alliances among women’s health advocates, progressive policy makers, medical professionals, pro-choice religious groups, women who have had abortions, and media towards increased grassroots organizing in communities. References “Activistas impulsan en el país leyes para despenalizar el aborto.” La Jornada. September 27, 2007. “Aprobar aborto en el DF sería un crimen hitleriano: obispo Arizmendi.” La Jornada April 14, 2007. Ávila, Antonio. “Ciudad de México despenaliza el aborto: La Asamblea de Representantes autoriza la interrupción del embarazo en las 12 primeras semanas.” El País. April 25, 2007. Billings, Deborah and Claudia Moreno, Celia Ramos, Deyanira Gonzalez de Leon, Ruben Ramirez, Leticia Villasenor Martinez, Mauricio Rivera Diaz. “Constructing Access to Legal Abortion Services in Mexico City.” Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 10, No. 19, Abortion: Women Decide (May, 2002), pp. 86-94 “Es legal en el DF la interrupción del embarazo hasta la semana 12: Votan a favor del dictamen 46 de los 66 diputados locales en una marátónica sesión,” La Jornada April 25, 2007. GIRE, Information Group on Reproductive Choice website: http://www.gire.org.mx/ Taracena Rosario. “Social Actors and Discourse on Abortion in the Mexican Press: The Paulina Case.” Reproductive Health Matters, 2002.