Activists from the anti-abortion NGO, Frente Nacional por la Familia (FNF), staged a demonstration Monday in downtown Guadalajara to protest laws that guarantee rape victims in Jalisco the right to abortions.
Although abortion is illegal under the Mexican Constitution (and the Jalisco penal code), victims of rape can end their pregnancies legally under Norma Oficial Mexicana 046 (a compulsory regulatory standard).
Not all states have adopted this standard, but on International Women’s Day, March 8, Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval instructed state health authorities to ensure that NOM 046 be respected “without exception.”
Doctors at clinics throughout the state will now be obliged to perform abortions on rape victims should they request it.
Sandoval’s stance has enraged conservative pro-family groups, provoking this week’s demonstration outside the state government palace, during which protestors held up photographs of aborted fetuses.
To qualify for a legal abortion under NOM 046, rape victims must file a prompt complaint with a Ministerio Publico (district attorney’s office) and show visible signs of sexual abuse. Health authorities must also offer the victim emergency contraception in a time lapse no greater than 120 hours following the incident.
However, Jaime Cedillo, state coordinator of the FNF, said NOM 046 is flawed because it allows women to have abortions after making rape allegations without identifying their aggressors. He suggested prosecutions will not be followed up if rape victims are permitted abortions, and said NOM 046 is a “gift” to rapists.
Cedillo said abortion is not a “solution” to rape, and that state authorities are obliged to help victims make informed decisions to continue their pregnancies. Women who do not want to keep their babies can have them adopted, he argued.
Cedillo also told reporters that girls aged from 12-18 who get pregnant should not be permitted to make decisions about their pregnancies on their own. “They are still under the tutelage of their parents,” he told the Televisa network.
Cedillo said the FMF believes abortion should not be decriminalized in Mexico and that all transgressors (including doctors) should be prosecuted and face jail time.
The FMF is also opposed to elevating NOM 046 to constitutional level within the Ley General de Acceso a una Vida Libre de Violencia (General Law to Access a Life Free of Violence), a proposal that is currently under discussion in the federal Chamber of Deputies.