Mexico seemed to be on a progressive track this year: the centrist PRI wrestled legislative power from the center-right PAN in mid-term elections; personal drug use of everything from pot to heroine was decriminalized; and major investments in wind farms were made in Baja. Such overtures stop short of abortion rights, however.

Last week the state of Veracruz passed a ban emphasizing that life begins at the moment of conception. That makes 17 of 32 states that have instituted a ban on abortion. Many state bans penalize abortion as homicide. In Veracruz, a stipulation was added that will permit women who have an abortion to avoid jail time by submitting to psychological treatment. Exceptions run the gamut, ranging from reasonable (pregnancy from rape) to ludicrous (an absolute ban).

This spat of abortion bans are a backlash to Mexico City’s decision to decriminalize abortion, during the first 12 weeks of gestation, in 2007. The furor was immense. President Calderon’s PAN took their protest to the Supreme Court, which eventually upheld the decision on an 8-3 vote. Many speculated this would open the floodgates to a slew of legalization amendments throughout Mexico. Turns out, the opposite has been the case. Aguascalientes and Michoacán may soon follow Veracruz, effectively banning abortion among two-thirds of Mexican states over the last two years.

Of more significance, the Veracruz legislature sent a proposal to Congress for federal action. Any state legislature can send amendments to Congress for consideration as national law. Any amendment is then sent back to the states, and if the majority of states vote in the affirmative federal law is made. A congressional ban would penalize abortion as murder throughout Mexico, as state support of a federal amendment is certain.

Historically, discussion of abortion and other hot button social issues was moot because of the prominent role of the Catholic Church in Mexican society. If religion remains the reason for the recent ban, that’s understandable. But given the Mexican legislature’s responses to other social problems this appears to be selective piety, to put it mildly.

Today Mexico's Supreme court upheld an April 2008 Mexico City decision to decriminalize abortion, thus permitting women to have an abortion in Mexico City during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy without the penalty of jail time.  The court ruling is highly controversial, and saw 8 justices in favor and 3 against.  Until very recently, abortions punished all parties involved with jail time. The court decision now opens the possibility of other states outside the Federal District to enact similar reforms.

Officials in the state of Chihuahua recently announced their plans to exhume the remains of more than 4,000 unidentified bodies buried in common graves in Ciudad Juarez, after beginning a similar process in Chihuahua City. Although local authorities deny a direct link to the murders and disappearances of several hundred local women in the past 14 years, the victims’ families are hoping independent investigators will be allowed access to the remains in order to provide some answers.

Since 1993, approximately 400 young women have been murdered in Juarez, a factory town across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas. Authorities have brought charges in some cases, but activists and victims’ families have contended that the accused in many cases are scapegoats, sometimes wrongly imprisoned or themselves victimized by questionable investigations, while the true culprits have not been held accountable.

The victims of the ongoing “femicides” have been young women, many of whom work in the maquiladoras (or assembly plants) that line the streets of Juarez. Many young women come from other parts of the country to seek employment in the factories, a large number of which are owned by U.S. companies taking advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since its implementation on January 1, 2004. Many girls and young women work night shifts, taking buses or walking long distances in the dark, when some of the crimes have occurred. Some bodies have been found dumped in fields together; several have not been found at all. The violence has spread beyond Juarez, with similar cases arising further south in Chihuahua City.

Many of the victims’ mothers have organized to seek justice and raise awareness of the femicides. Through organizations such as Justicia para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for our Daughters), the mothers are taking their fight abroad, hoping that international awareness will lead to greater pressure on the Mexican government. In a show of support, the U.S. House and Senate passed a resolution in May of 2007 condemning the violence in Juarez and advocating for the issue to become part of the bilateral agenda between the U.S. and Mexican governments.

President Felipe Calderon supported a new national law earlier this year that calls for integrated federal, state, and local programs involving Mexican police, media, courts, and schools to identify and combat violence against women. The law contains several measures aimed at domestic violence. Although Calderon had pledged as a candidate to resolve the killings, his administration eliminated a special commission originally organized to investigate the matter. The commission merged with Inmujeres, an organization responsible for all crimes against women nationwide. 

Photo: A memorial in Juarez, in honor of the victims (Photo by the author, who traveled to Juarez in 2005 on a delegation that examined this issue through meetings with victims’ mothers, NGO leaders, and government representatives.)

Speaking at a Mexico City event to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, President Calderon addressed what he called Mexico's “culture of machismo,” acknowledging that millions of women face abuse and workplace discrimination despite the passage of laws targeting gender inequities and violence against women.

Earlier this year, Mexico enacted a law obligating authorities to prevent, punish, and eradicate violence against women, but only a handful of states have formally adopted the measure thus far. This week, Calderon signed an additional law aimed at preventing and punishing the trafficking and enslavement of women and children.

Violence against women in Mexico has gained international attention with the largely unsolved murders and disappearances of several hundred young women in Juarez and Chihuahua over the past ten years.

The stars of the critically-acclaimed film “Y Tu Mama Tambien” are turning their attention to social injustices in Mexico.  Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna held a gala dinner in Mexico City to raise money for the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, and Witness, an organization started by singer Peter Gabriel that promotes the use of video and film to document human rights abuses.

Garcia Bernal and Luna said they would make documentaries to raise awareness of issues such as the unsolved murders of more than 300 women in Ciudad Juarez.   

(AP photo of Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna)

Often referred to as “banking for the poor,” microcredit programs provide collateral-free small loans to those too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans.  Originating in developing countries, microcredit has provided a successful model for enabling impoverished individuals to engage in self-employment projects to generate income.  It is part of the larger microfinance movement, and often focuses on lending to women, who have shown to be more reliable in repaying the loans and also more likely to devote their earnings to benefit the entire family.

Two organizations, BanComun de la Frontera and Grameen de la Frontera, focus on microlending in Mexico's northern regions.  The latter is named after the famed Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which is credited with developing the microcredit model that is now widely replicated worldwide.  BanComun loans, which range from just $50 to $800 per person, have reached over 1,500 residents in the poorest neighborhoods of Nogales.  Approximately 85% of the clients are women, and the program has a 95% repayment rate.  BanComun is expanding to other cities including Juarez and setting up a social investment fund that will allow people to help finance the socioeconomic welfare of its clients. 

Meanwhile, the Dallas-based Chiapas Project has helped more than 4,000 impoverished women in the state of Chiapas, through a partnership with Alternative Solidaria. The loan repayment rate has been 98%, encouraging organization leaders to further expand their reach through the Grameen Foundation. According to the Chiapas Project, with loans as small as $50, women can buy chickens and sheep to raise, plant trees to produce and sell fruit, purchase a corn grinder to make tortillas for the market, or buy cloth to create and sell handicrafts. The hope is that through microfinance, women such as those in Chiapas who typically live on less than $2 a day, are able to earn the income necessary to rise above poverty.

At a conference convened by the International AIDS Society and sponsored by the United Nations, 25 leaders and HIV-positive women activists from across Latin America gathered to strategize for the 17th International AIDS Conference to be held in Mexico next year.  Participants emphasized the need to address the social stigma and cultural conditions affiliated with the disease, particularly as it relates to women.  According to the United Nations Population Fund, just three years ago, the ratio of men to women with HIV/AIDS in Latin America was seven or eight for every one woman with the virus; today, the ratio is three to one.

See: HIV-Positive Women Activists in Latin America Stand Tall (Inter Press Service)

Mexico City's Legislative Assembly voted 46-19 to legalize abortion, and the city's progressive mayor is expected to approve it.  President Felipe Calderon's conservative party and the Catholic Church have spoken out against the city's actions.

Martha Micher, director of the Mexico City government's Women's Institute, estimates that 200,000 women have illegal abortions in Mexico each year. Micher told the New York Times that botched abortions using herbal remedies and quasi-medical procedures kill 1,500 Mexican women each year and has been the third-leading cause of death for pregnant women in the capital city.

The only Latin American and Caribbean countries with legalized abortion for all women are Cuba and Guyana. Nicaragua, Chile, and El Salvador ban it completely, while other countries make exceptions for cases of rape and when the woman's health is in risk.

In Mexico, abortion is banned except in the case of rape, severe birth defects, or a risk to the woman's health, although some doctors reportedly refuse to perform the procedure even in those cases. The new Mexico City measure would allow for first-trimester abortions, requiring city hospitals to provide it and opening the door for private clinics as well. The procedure will be almost free for poor and insured patients.

Mexico City's independent legislature is dominated by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, which is at odds on the issue with President Calderon's conservative National Action Party. Supporters of the city's actions hope that it will have wider impact in promoting the decriminalization of abortion elsewhere, while opponents are planning to challenge the new law in Mexico's Supreme Court.

(AP Photo: Rally in Mexico City)

Mexican journalist and women's rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro is the recipient of Amnesty International USA's 2007 Ginetta Sagan Award for Women's and Children's Rights.  Cacho is the Founder and Director of the Refuge Center for Abused Women of Cancun and also serves as President of the Center for Women's Assistance.  A specialist on gender-based violence, Cacho has risked her own life and faces persecution, death threats, arrests, and intimidation as a result of her work to hold accountable those who victimize women and children.  Cacho received the Sagan award in late March and is embarking on a speaking tour in several American cities in coordination with Amnesty International USA.

A March 28th KQED radio interview of Lydia Cacho can be downloaded here.

Mexico's Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) has proposed a bill in the national Senate to legalize abortion within the first three months of pregnancy.  Currently, Mexican law only allows for abortion in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger.  The PRD has also proposed legalizing abortion in Mexico City, which is a federal district with its own legislature that is more liberal than the national congress.  President Calderon and Roman Catholic leaders have spoken out against the bill.

For more details, see:
Mexican Churches Form United Front Against Abortion Bill (International Herald Tribune)
Mexico's Senate Considers Abortion Bill  Townhall.com)
Mexico City Moves to Liberalize Abortion Laws (Ms. Magazine)