Women choose. We help.

Mexico’s highest court ruled unanimously this month to decriminalize abortion and set the precedent to legalize abortion nation-wide. While the focus is on abortion, it is impossible not to be moved by the words of liberation and justice the court shared in its ruling:

“A new path of freedom, clarity, dignity and respect for all pregnant women, but above all for women. Today is one more step in the historic struggle for their equality, for their dignity and for the full exercise of their rights.

 

Never again will a woman or a person with gestational capacity have to be criminally prosecuted. Today the threat of imprisonment and the stigma that weighs on people who freely decide to terminate their pregnancies is banished.”

This comes at a time when the US Supreme Court has also made a ruling, but in the contrary direction: refusing to set aside a Texas law that not only criminalizes abortion after 6 weeks but puts a bounty on anyone helping a someone access abortion care. Other states have passed similarly restrictive laws.

We saw a parallel dichotomy at play earlier this year, when Argentina’s Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill came into effect, and on its heels, Honduras changed its Constitution to ban all abortions, going so far as to disallow all future legislative discussion of abortion.

Regardless of whether abortion is legal or penalized, Hesperian remains one of the most accessible sources of comprehensive, evidence-based information on abortion. Our Safe Abortion App (in English, Spanish and 8 other languages) is used in every country and territory in the world by people caring for themselves or others. We are working harder now to ensure that people in the US find out about the app, especially in states that are restricting abortions and in BIPOC communities where barriers to access are greater.

Next week we will join our global partners to commemorate September 28th, International Safe Abortion Day. Abortion is part of basic reproductive health care. Please join us by sharing the app with those who will find it helpful, and contact us at [email protected] with ideas of how to get the word out.