For 20 years Verónica Cruz Sánchez, founder of the feminist human rights group Las Libres in Guanajuato, Mexico, was a tireless advocate for women seeking abortions in a country with staggeringly high rates of rape and domestic violence.
During that time, her non-profit organization distributed hundreds of thousands of ‘abortion pills’ to women in need.
But when Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in 2021 on the grounds that abortion bans violated the rights of women, it may have seemed that her organization’s work was concluded.
Then the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade and Las Libres’ mission was suddenly turned on its head.
In recent weeks, the organization has experienced an avalanche of calls from U.S. jurisdictions in which abortion restrictions are already taking effect.
Previously scheduled abortions are being summarily cancelled, leaving the victims with too little time to sift through too few alternatives.
Las Libres packages the pills in orders of 3-5 each, depending upon availability. They are batched and transported to the U.S.-Mexican border, where an army of volunteers carries them into the U.S. and assures that each is delivered to its final destination within days of order.
Mexican clinics are already anticipating an influx flood of U.S. women seeking abortions, evoking images of abortion clinics dotting the Mexican side of the border like casinos on Native American reservations.
And contraceptives are now a regular part of the mix of drugs making its way north. In an ironic reversal of stereotypes, Mexican Catholics have proven themselves far more tolerant and respectful of human rights than Evangelical Americans.
Leave a Reply