Since federal protection for abortion in the US was removed a year ago, when the Supreme Court overturned its decades-old Roe v Wade ruling, thousands of American women seeking safe abortions have looked south to the northern border states of Mexico for reproductive choice.
But in three of those states – Chihuahua, Nuevo León and Sonora – Latinas are themselves experiencing a repeat of the backlash seen in Texas and other US states, as anti-abortion groups target women and girls (including potential victims of rape) with misleading advertising and misinformation about their rights, a new investigation by openDemocracy and Mexican media outlet La Verdad de Juárez has found.
“It seems like we are in a terrible movie where women always lose,” Andrea Sánchez, a reproductive rights activist based in Sonora, told openDemocracy. “Several laws in our state protect women and allow abortions, but this does not always happen because the health services are inadequate and stigmatise women.”
