When the six-week abortion ban goes into effect on May 1, 2024, Florida joins nearly 20 other U.S. states that ban or significantly restrict abortion.
These laws came into effect after a 2022 Supreme Court decision was overturned. Roe vs. Wade It ended nearly 50 years of constitutional abortion rights in the United States.
In 2023, Florida health officials reported more than 84,000 abortions performed statewide, including nearly 7,800 by out-of-state residents.
of tampa bay times A recent report found that over the past six years, approximately two in five abortions in Florida were performed within the first six weeks of pregnancy, and approximately 60% of abortions performed during this period were new abortions. This would be illegal under the regulations.
New laws in Florida and other states that have legalized abortion procedures in recent years have sent some Americans across the border to Mexico for abortions.
Clinics in Mexico do not require proof of residency, so hard numbers on who they treat are difficult to obtain. But Mexican providers report seeing more Americans.
In 2022, Luisa Garcia, director of Profem, an abortion clinic in the border city of Tijuana, said: NPR In just two months after the Dobbs decision, the percentage of patients coming from the United States jumped from 25% to 50%.
My research and teaching focus on gender and sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean. I often ask students to think about the differences between the United States and Latin America, and the challenges the two regions share.
different paths
In recent years, the United States and Mexico have been at odds over access to abortion care, with the two countries moving in opposite directions.
The year before the U.S. Supreme Court reversed egg, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that the northern state of Coahuila's criminalization of abortion was unconstitutional. The decision set a precedent leading to federal decriminalization in 2023.
Since then, change has continued slowly. Only 13 of Mexico's 31 states have amended their criminal laws to reflect court decisions, with Jalisco being the latest to do so in April 2024.
Unlike in the United States, Mexican federal law does not automatically override local federal law. However, Mexican women living in states where abortion is illegal can obtain abortions at federally run hospitals and clinics. And federal law protects employees at these facilities from punishment.
Marea Verde Movement
A key force behind the legalization of abortion care in Latin America is a movement called Green Tide, or Marea Verde, which originated in Argentina and has spread across the region over the past two decades.
Green Tide began as a collective fight for abortion rights, but has grown to encompass issues such as violence against women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, and preventing femicide, the violent death of women because of their gender. I did.
Expanding access to abortion in Mexico
Following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Mexican abortion providers have expanded their footprint to increase options for Mexicans and U.S. residents seeking treatment. For example, Fundación MSI opened its newest clinic in Cancun late last year.
MSI's regional managing director for Latin America told health news website Stat that the location was chosen intentionally. Cancun is a popular tourist destination, so there are direct flights from several U.S. airports for around $400 round trip. In-person abortion services cost between $250 and $350. His website at MSI caters to Americans by providing information in English and posting links to search for flights.
To help those traveling to Mexico, Mexican and American abortion rights groups have created Red Transfrontieriza, a transnational network that supports people crossing the border in search of care, but its main Its mission was to transport misoprostol and mifepristone, pills commonly used to induce abortion. Abortion to the United States.
One group participating in the network on the Mexican side of the border is Las Libres, or Free Ones, based in Guanajuato. In September 2023, its founder estimated that her organization had sent abortion pills to about 20,000 women in the United States since the Dobbs decision.
Red Necesito Abortar, or I Need to Abort Network, was founded in 2017 by Sandra Cardona and Vanessa Jimenez in the northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, to support people seeking abortion services.
History of abortion on the U.S.-Mexico border
Although, Dobbs Although the decision brought renewed attention to the issue, the relationship between the United States and Mexico and people in both countries who seek abortions has a long history.
Abortion was legal in the United States and was performed by midwives before the Civil War, said Lina Maria Murillo, a women's studies professor who studies the U.S.-Mexico border region and teaches courses on global reproduction. He explains. Over the next few decades, declining birth rates and inequality between men and women led to restrictions across the country, and a nationwide ban in 1910.
As Murillo's research documents, criminalization led women seeking abortions to Mexico more than a century ago.
These border crossings eventually declined as Mexico enacted abortion regulations and closed clinics by the late 1960s. At the same time, activists and doctors in the United States contributed to a narrative that portrayed Mexico as a dangerous place where abortions were performed in “back alleys” by “butcher” doctors. Murillo argues that these myths contributed to the loosening of abortion regulations in some U.S. states, including California and New Mexico, and helped prepare people for abortions. Roe vs. Wade.
Abortion is likely to be back in the spotlight as the US election approaches, including in Florida, where a referendum to repeal the six-week ban will be on the November ballot.
