Roe v. Wade debate: Woman who had illegal abortion in Mexico stresses need for legal access

Editor’s Notes: This article contains sensitive subject matter that may be triggering to some readers. The direct quotes have been translated from Spanish to English.

With word the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide, one young woman from Mexico is sharing her experience with trying to access the procedure illegally.

Karla from Jalisco, Mexico was only 16-years-old when she found out she was pregnant. CityNews has agreed to withhold her last name for her privacy.

Although she knew she could not support a child, financially or emotionally, she worried she had no other option, as abortion is widely illegal in Mexico.

It was very hard because here in Mexico it is illegal and nobody gives you resources for support. I had to look for a way to do it myself,” she explained. 


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Karla says she was so afraid of what people would think of her, as well as the possibility of ending up in jail, she did not tell anyone she was pregnant or that she was planning on terminating her pregnancy.

I don’t know how my family would react if I told them. I assume badly because I don’t think they’d believe it and then they would make me feel very guilty, and I don’t think they would support me.”

In order to have a medical abortion, Karla needed two medications: Mifepristone and Misoprostol. Due to Mexico’s loose pharmaceutical regulations, Karla believed she could gain access to the pills. However, she says finding the medications proved to be difficult.

“I did it at home, and I looked everywhere for someone who would sell me the abortion pills. Because honestly, it is really hard to find them. Once I did find them, I had to do it alone.”

Karla only managed to find Misoprostol which, unlike Mifepristone, does not block the progesterone hormone necessary to continue a pregnancy. It empties the uterus, making Karla’s medical abortion significantly more painful.

Although the FDA states there is only a 0.4 per cent risk of complications from the medications, conducting an abortion without medical supervision is highly dangerous, especially if the pregnant person has an ectopic pregnancy or the fertilized egg is implanted outside the uterus.

It crossed my mind that if something were to have happened, something bad, and I would have to go to the hospital, I would have gone to jail or been legally reprimanded. I was so scared something would go wrong and I would end up in the hospital. I was more afraid of going to jail than sickness or even death.”

The now-19-year-old says although terminating her pregnancy was the best decision for herself at the time, she worries many government officials fail to recognize the importance of making abortions legal and accessible.

They do not care about mothers. A good government would make it legal because there are lots of situations where forced motherhood does not lead to a quality life. But the government doesn’t think of that. If a woman makes the decision to have an abortion, whether it is legal or not, they are going to do it,” she said.

“We all go through that decision: ‘Do we want to have it or not?’ At the end of the day, we know why we chose to do what we did and no one should have a right to judge us for that.”

Karla says not giving birth allowed her to work towards a better future, one that would allow her future children a much better quality of life.

I have changed for the better, so that in the future when I do have a child, they will have a quality of life. Not just because I ended up pregnant [and] I am forced to be a mother. Having the abortion helped me so much to grow, and continue my life to get a future where I can be a mother to give my child a quality of life.”

She hopes international governments work towards legalized abortion, as she believes it would have alleviated much of the concern she underwent.

If I lived in a country where this was legal, I would not have felt the way I did. I would not have been alone, looking for an abortion, looking for the medication on my own. If it was legal I could have gone to a place where I felt safe. I really would not have had to go through what I did.”

U.S. abortion law concerns 

On Monday, Politico posted published what was labelled as the first draft of an “Opinion of the Court” in a case challenging Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks, a case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling in the case, and opinions — and even justices’ votes — have been known to change during the drafting process. The court is expected to rule on the case before its term is up in late June or early July.

The draft is signed by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” the draft opinion states.

The draft opinion in effect states there is no Constitutional right to abortion services and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or outright ban the procedure.

-With files from The Associated Press

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