Gagged In Mexico

Gagged in Mexico

By Michelle Wojcik

Imagine being a young girl in Mexico and you get raped by your father. This situation should be hard enough to imagine, but to add on to your problem, you realize that you are pregnant. You know that you don't want the baby so you plan on aborting it. The laws are very strict in Mexico when dealing with abortion and you know this. Since this is a case of rape, it states in the law that it is legal for you to abort the fetus. One problem, when you go to get the abortion, no doctor will do it in fear of being prosecuted by the government. You think to yourself that this shouldn't be happening because the law clearly states that this is a legal thing to do, but in Mexico, even f it is a law, doctors still get threatened and prosecuted by the government for performing abortions all the time.

In Mexico, they have their own abortion laws, but they rely heavily on family planning help money from the United States. One problem...President Bush ordered the State Department to withhold the U.S.'s family planning help from overseas groups that promote or perform abortions without their own money. Mexico doesn't have the best economy and there are families in poverty that cannot afford abortions. So families have a choice, they can get the abortion and give up government money for family planning that they are eligible for, or they can keep it which is their choice. If they don't want the fetus though, the woman is endangered and so is her family when it come to their health and healthcare. Women are essentially given an ultimatum in the long run.

The United States Government has many opinions about the Global Gag Rule. Having it vetoed and then reinstated would prove that. Traditionally the Senate has voted to oppose the ban while the House has supported it. Along with the Global Gag Rule that the U.S. has placed on other countries, Mexico being the major one, Mexico also has its own laws against abortion. The Mexican Government prohibits abortion in all cases except those of rape and those posing a serious danger to a women's health. A study has shown that abortion rates can be dramatically reduced when women have access to post-abortion family planning counseling and contraceptive services immediately and when abortions are preformed. Under the Global Gag Rule, the U.S. Government is making it more difficult for women to access contraceptive services that will help them prevent unintended pregnancies and abortion.

One big roadblock for a change is the Roman Catholic Church which is strongly against abortion, threatening those debating with them with excommunication from the church. Having the church threatening people makes it very difficult for things to change anytime soon. The country is experiencing "in increasingly acrimonious debate over abortion" with recent restrictions imposed in several Mexican states "sparking widespread protests from women's groups and human right's organizations, who saw it as a sign of growing influence of the religious right." On October 18, dozens of police raided a clinic of an international family planning agency and arrested a doctor and nurse accused of performing abortions. This is why doctors refuse to perform abortions in fear of the authorities. If the doctors won't perform them, then women resort to unsanitary abortions to ensure that they don't have the baby, putting many women