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 Editorials | Issues | April 2007 
Clinics Offer Abortions in Plain Sight
 El Universal
A print ad for a clinic leaves little doubt about a procedure it offers:
"Unwanted pregnancy? Just call us. Absolute discretion guaranteed. We do not leave you sterile or perforate the uterus. There is a solution to your pregnancy!"
That ad and many like it indicate that there are doctors who are not waiting for the Chamber of Deputies or the Federal District Legislative Assembly to finish debating the subject of abortion.
Nor do they care about the rival positions of the Catholic Church and organizations promoting freedom for women.
For these doctors, abortion is a reality. It is also a business.
And because these doctors exist, anybody can have access to an abortion in clinics that are far from squalid and not entirely secret.
Many are set up in middle or upper-middle class areas of Mexico City where the procedures are usually safe and hygienic.
Anybody, that is, with 5,000 pesos.
At the Ciudad Satelite clinic of Dr. Víctor Manuel Torres Pérez, there are only two requirements to be eligible for an abortion. One is not to eat or drink anything on the day you come in. The other is to have an adult sign a release form if you are under 18. You will be under general anesthesia.
"It´s quick, safe, effective and without risk for your future ability to conceive," Dr. Torres Pérez says. "Your uterus remains intact, and we will not leave you sterile."
Because abortion is still illegal in Mexico except under special circumstances, women often must seek to have unwanted pregnancies terminated in clandestine clinics. Those with limited resources can´t always find the "quick, safe, effective and without risk" treatment promised by Dr. Torres Pérez.
Maricela Contreras Julián, president of the Gender and Equality Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, says the frequency of clandestine abortions constitutes a public health risk.
Complications are frequent, she said, and the death rate is high.
According to recent statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO in English, OMS in Spanish) and the United Nations Population Fund, more than 45 million abortions take place each year worldwide under circumstances that are "unacceptable" from a medical point of view. They are either practiced by unqualified persons or take place without adequate hygiene.
As a result of these poorly performed abortions, 71,000 women die each year, about 191 each day.
The most recent statistics for Mexico are from the United Nations, and are 10 years old.
In that study it was determined that 1,000 Mexican women die from poorly performed illegal abortions each year, almost three a day.
The government recognizes a much lower number: less than one abortion-related death per day.
Despite the inadequate statistical base, the National Population Council (Conapo) estimates a total of 100,000 abortions in Mexico each year, about 275 a day or more than 10 every hour.
Since legal abortions are rare, the overwhelming majority of those 100,000 abortions are clandestine.
Conapo also estimates that 19 percent of women who have gotten pregnant decide to abort at least one of their pregnancies. There is one abortion in Mexico for every 21 pregnancies carried to term. |
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