AMLO does not want to open new fronts on the issue of abortion, despite the fact that thousands of women are criminalized, accuses Patricia Mercado

Earlier this week, the coordinator of the parliamentary group of the National Movement for Regeneration (Morena) in the Chamber of Deputies, Mario Delgadoinformed that the debate on decriminalization of abortion in all the countriese will postpone to the next regular period, which begins in September.

Leaving the report presented by the Chair Andrés Manuel López Obrador about his first 100 days of government, Delgado explained in an interview for the national media that there was issues on the agenda that require your urgent attention, such as education reform, the law on austerity and secondary legislation in the area of National Guard.

The position of Mario Delgado is in perfect harmony with that of Presidentwho isThis Tuesday he refused again to answer a question about abortion.

"In that case I reserve the opinion because I do not want to polemicizeI do not want to take sides (…) I am also the owner of my silence, "he told the reporter. March 8thwhen he evaded the question in front of all means of communication.

"We should not open these debates"he said Obrador on this occasion after being questioned about his position around if in the country should to decriminalize or not the termination of pregnancy.

His commentary came two days after the state of New Lion approve the reform of local constitutional Article 1 in order to guarantee the right to life from conception to death. Controversy anti-abortion law was criticized by "criminalize" to the woman and the debate reached the Chamber of Deputies and Senators, where the organization of the reproductive information group elected (WAX) distributed green facial tissues with slogans # AbortoParaTodoMéxico and #AbortoLegalYa.

A problem priority for the government

While the President he keeps himself far from the debate and his relatives repeat that the the subject is not a priority in the agenda some sectors of society are starting to wonder why the current government has not expressed support for decriminalization of abortion. One of them is the caucus of the opposition.

In this regard, the senator Patricia Mercado he said in an interview with Infobae Mexico that for her, López Obrador has a "share of conviction in the subject concerning abortion should not be legalized"

Senator from Citizen movement explained that "when the current president was at the head of the Mexico City government, stopped so much The law on the equality of marriage as the decriminalization of abortion ", and went to the administration of Marcelo Ebrard when its legalization was approved, in 2007.

The badysis suggests that other reasons prevent López Obrador from promoting this law at the national level, among which the pressure of the right sectors and hierarchy of the Church Catholic "His logic indicates that this debate opens more fronts than those already open, prefers to channel what was committed in the countryside; and he did not do it, "said Patricia Mercado.

Criminalization and death

Although it is not on the presidential agenda, legal interruption of pregnancy is one of the problems crucial demands in Mexico and Latin America. His approval is a question of public healthbecause the whole population has the right to the state to guarantee health services appropriate. In this sense, what is being debated is not the abortion moralitybut if the government will guarantee the health security conditions so that women who decide to terminate a pregnancy can do it without this setting up risk their lives or criminalize them.

In Mexico, 4,246 were reported between January 2007 and December 2016. criminal procedure for abortion in any office or prosecutor's office. This was reported by the selected Breeding Information Group (IWRM), which adds that between January 2015 and April 2018, 1,666 were registered previous requests for the same crime.

The figures give only an idea of ​​the extent of the problem in Mexico, because at least 12 entities stated that they did not have data on the number of the women who have been deprived of liberty, that is to say, who are in prison, because of an abortion.

In this regard, Patricia Mercado badured that there could be thousands of women imprisoned, many of them indigenous. And he explained that part of the lack of control in the data is due to the fact that most of them were charged for other crimes, as infanticide or homicide.

In addition to the prison, there is another problem, even more serious, which is the number of dead which are registered every year in Mexico because of illegal abortions. The figures in this regard are approximate because, again, the country has no records.

The senator from Movimiento Ciudadano explained that you can not have precise data because "nobody says"she died by abortion& # 39; because then the doctor should appear before the public prosecutor and could end up in prison. So what are you doing here? talk about bleeding or other types of incidents ".

According to her, illegal abortions could be the second or the third cause of death among the women of this country. And although the figure is almost impossible to define, we are talking about thousands of victims a year, something not exaggerated to badyze the number of irregular abortions that exist every year in Mexico: between 750,000 and a million.

This information was provided a few years ago by a study of Guttmacher Institute, who talks about the need to eliminate maternal death because of a dangerous abortion.

Poor women, victims of concealment

Different organizations pointed out that the simple economic cost of this medical procedure in private clinic This makes it already inaccessible for a large percentage of the population.

Similarly, women who remain imprisoned for abortion-related crimes always have the same profile: poor people, belonging to a rural area, many of them indigenous that not even they speak Spanish and that they do not have the Resource to hire a lawyer to defend them.

Patricia Mercado spoke about it and said that in the Senate, one of the big debates is therelease of all these women who have been unfairly condemned. He recalled that when he came to power, Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised a amnesty for all women who have been imprisoned by abortion case spontaneous, premature and obstetric emergencies.

Once released, the next step is the reintegration of these women. "We have to wait for a kind of amnesty for all these women imprisoned for abortion, it is necessary to generate a protocol to prevent them from being made stigmatized"said the senator.

He stressed that officials they should rethink the categories with which they designate women who terminate their pregnancy, as you indicate. "killers"is to fall into your criminalization.

"There are many reasons why women may have to perform abortions and it must be believed that these are ethical reasons. It does not matter if you are in favor or against, the reality is that in Mexico, this problem exists and must be solved. That's why it seems to me that it is necessary to go down to the argument of & quot; are murderers & # 39;"

In the midst of this extreme polarization on the part of some senators, as Lilly Téllezwe lose sight of the fact that the meaning of the discussion does not revolve around the abortion moralitybut of the inaction that the government has in front of a public health problem.

The legalization of abortion, a matter of justice

The government López Obrador promised a transformation deep from Mexico, with representation of the poorest and withoutto serve a rapacious minority"The majority of MORENA in the legislature facilitates the work of the president.

So, all that remains to be done is to convince the President that the legalization of abortion if it's a priority question in Mexico. In this regard, Patricia Mercado stated the following:

"If it's a priority problem because it's a health problem, because it's a matter of justice. López Obrador said that the most important for his government was to end the inequality and Here women with resources do not have problems. Women with resources abort well in the offices of their private doctors. Y poor women no are those who get sick and those who die after the abortion"

His words recalled the commitment made by the President of Mexico He has done with the people to end the inequality in the country. According to her, this commitment is forgotten "a very great inequality in which women liveespecially poor women. "

For the moment, it remains to be seen whether the Obrador government will leave "fourth transformation"a change in the lives of women who, up to now, live social and legal persecution which involves making some decisions about your own body.