Verónica Cruz Sánchez
“Years ago in Guanajuato and throughout Mexico, abortion for survivors of rape wasn’t available. While it was technically legal, our government did not provide the services women and girls needed.”
Verónica Cruz Sánchez, who is a long-time campaigner for abortion rights in Mexico and who helped ensure girls and women who were raped could access safe abortions. Nowadays, she is helping USA-based women access abortion pills in the wake of the Roe Vs Wade reversal.
We created our feminist organization Las Libres (the Free Ones) in 2000 because we wanted to promote women’s rights and be there for those who had been raped. It seemed completely inhuman to think that these girls would have to bring these pregnancies to term. We wanted to make sure their rights were upheld, so we formed a network of gynaecologists, along with psychologists and lawyers to help guarantee the right to free and safe abortion. We also wanted to support girls and women who wanted to terminate unwanted pregnancies at home without medical supervision by accessing abortion pills for free.
In 2002, I met several young women who were imprisoned for having miscarriages, obstetric emergencies and abortions. They were young, had barely turned 18 and were already in prison. Some had been raped, the majority lived in poverty and were from marginalized rural areas. One of the girls I met was still pale from blood loss – she’d been sent to prison straight from hospital. I knew I wanted to help. She shouldn’t have been there.
After we met, she introduced me to other young women who had been subjected to the same prosecution. My team and I started running workshops in prison as we wanted to understand their situation and reconstruct what had happened. There was one woman who eventually led all the others to freedom. Unlike the rest she hadn’t been sentenced yet, so we started litigating her case and eventually she was released. This victory helped us to raise awareness about similar cases and created a massive social outrage. Soon afterwards all the other women were out of prison.
Since then we have made progress and the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that abortion should be decriminalised throughout the country. But many federal states continue to criminalise abortion in many cases and women are still learning about their rights, so it is my job to educate them.
While Mexico has taken steps forward, it is super crazy to witness what is happening in the USA. The USA used to be a reference for Mexico, with everyone wanting a ruling like Roe v. Wade.
After the constitutional right to abortion was overturned in the USA, one journalist gave me the idea to replicate our model and help women in Texas. Our aim was to pass on our experience, the model and resources such as abortion pills, which weren’t easily available there. When Americans read about our work in the USA media, their reaction was amazing. Donations started flowing in, even small ten dollar donations. And we were able to buy one year’s worth of pills to send to the USA for free.
To date, we have supported more than 20,000 women directly in the United States and formed more than 200 support networks across the country. Our networks are anonymous, as these people are at great risk of criminalization. Where possible, if someone wants to go to a clinic, we try and connect them with someone in an out-of-state clinic.
Abortion is a right for which the entire society needs to take responsibility and should not be just on the shoulders of women, girls and all those who need or want an abortion. When the State does not respond, social organizations such as Las Libres must come forward and help to solve this problem.
SOURCE: Amnesty International, 27 September 2024