More Americans Seeking Abortions Are Turning to Mexico for Help Catherine E. Shoichet - CNN
go to original July 26, 2022

Mexican Abortion Clinics Bracing for Influx of Americans (KPBS Public Media)

Verónica Cruz says she’s been getting frantic calls from women in the United States. Abortion clinics have canceled their appointments, and they're scared, she says.

"As soon as the Supreme Court decision came out, they were left without service. There are many people who call us crying, very desperate," Cruz told CNN in a recent interview. "And the majority don't even speak Spanish."

Cruz is the founder of Las Libres - Spanish for "The Free Ones" - and she's spent years fighting for abortion rights in the Mexican state of Guanajuato and throughout the country. Now her organization is helping lead the charge in a new battle, fielding calls from a growing number of women in the United States who are turning to Mexico for help.

For decades abortion rights advocates in Mexico looked to the United States as an example of what was possible. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision left many of them stunned - and determined to show solidarity and take action.

The last year has brought about a dramatic role reversal. In September 2021, Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion. And in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that guaranteed legal access to abortion across the country.

"It surprised me that Mexico is going forward, and the United States is going backward," Cruz says. "I never imagined that."

Cruz says she and other advocates in Mexico have been watching closely as an increasing number of U.S. states passed abortion restrictions. And by the time the U.S. Supreme Court decision came down, she says, they were ready to help.

"A beautiful web is being woven so that women can have different options," says Sandra Cardona, who helps run "Red Necesito Abortar" - Spanish for "I Need to Abort Network" - from her home in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Mexican groups' efforts for years have largely focused on helping Mexican women obtain pills for medication abortions and walking them through that process. And now they say they're seeing a notable increase in requests for that help from the United States.

The rise in calls from people who are reaching out in English, Cruz says, is a sign of how great the need is.

"The numbers are going to keep growing," says Crystal P. Lira, founder of Bloodys Red Tijuana, another group that facilitates medication abortion. "It's a snowball effect."

Now the two pills needed for medication abortion - mifepristone and misoprostol - are cheaper and easier to obtain in Mexico. And networks of activists in Mexico have intensified their efforts to send the pills to the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Read the rest at 4029TV.com

Related: Medication Abortion Is Common; Here's How It Works (Associated Press)

  Learn about I Need to Abort Network