The disposition of the Congress of Aguascalientes to reduce the limit for terminating a pregnancy from 12 to 6 weeks It is unsustainable from a scientific, bioethical and even religious point of view.
It is a regression to women’s human rights, modern gynecology maintains because Most women are not sure if they are pregnant at 6 weeks.
If that is the limit They would no longer have time to make a conscious decision.says the American Pregnancy Association.
How was the 12-week period for legal termination of pregnancy determined?
Women from Catholics for the Right to Decide have argued that the 12-week limit is not a whimbut originated from the reading of the church fathers.
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas gave the key to this bioethical limit because these two philosophers held that The soul does not enter the fetus until 90 days of gestation..
From a scientific and legal point of view, Jorge Carpizo, former rector of UNAMstated that the 12 weeks are established because Until that period a fetus has not developed the cerebral cortex.
“Within that period the embryo is not a characterized biological individual, nor a person, nor a human being.The embryo does not have the conditions that characterize the human being, because it lacks the structures, connections and nervous functions necessary for this and, of course, is incapable of suffering or enjoying. Biologically cannot be considered a human being“.
Today the decision of Congress, says the former deputy Martha Taglemakes what has been advanced unviable, because the reduction to 6 weeks makes it almost impossible to access this right Well, to notice and confirm a pregnancy it takes at least 4 weeks.
Regarding calculating pregnancy, It is difficult to know exactly when ovulation occurred.so pregnancy is always determined from the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP).
The doctor Jen Villavicencioan obstetrician-gynecologist who lectures at the University of Michigan Medicine and is also a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologistsnoted two years ago – in the context of the reduction to six weeks in Texas – that between 45 and 49 percent of pregnancies are unplanned.
What does the abortion reform approved by Aguascalientes imply?
In addition to reducing the number of weeks of gestation in which abortion could be accessed in Aguascalientes, the initiative presented to the local Congress on the subject of pregnancy termination also makes a few modifications to the grounds for abortion:
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Eliminates causes of risk to life and health.
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Requests that in cases of genetic alterations two doctors certify the severity in order to give authorization
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It eliminates the reckless cause, accidental abortion, and creates a new one on spontaneous abortion in which two doctors have to certify that it was spontaneous and not provoked.
According to the lawyer Nilde MolRethe latter It is impossible to corroborate because there are no laboratory, chemical or physical tests in which this situation can be determined..
Spontaneous, accidental and induced abortions have the same characteristics.
“This puts all people with the possibility of gestating at risk of criminalization, but especially girls, adolescents, people with disabilities, indigenous people, and low-income people,” says the lawyer.
The reform to the Penal Code was presented by 20 of the 27 legislatorsamong them members of the PAN, PRI, PRD, Morena and the PVEM, while a law “for the protection of life” was sent by Teresa Jiménez
It took eight months for the PAN government’s plan to be implemented Teresa Jimenez to promote a counter-reform to the decriminalization of abortion in Aguascalientes could be realized.
“It is a step backwards towards the rights we have already won and fought for. This initiative is actually worse than what we had before in the Law. We will seek legal measures since Congress does not understand dialogue. We will once again go to court,” says Angélica Contreras, a member of the civil organization Cultivando Género.
The decriminalization of pregnancy termination in this state occurred in the first weeks of December 2023, when eight members of the Legislature voted – in secret – to endorse the change in law that, in August of that year, The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) had forced them to carry out after an amparo process promoted by four local organizations, including Cultivando Género and the Information Group on Chosen Reproduction (GIRE).
Pressured by conservative and far-right groups – an electoral bastion of National Action – The president condemned the fact days after the approval. Then, in a video where he appeared with members of the PAN bench in Congress, announced a legislative plan to combat the law change.
“The state government, and personally as governor of Aguascalientes, we are pro-life“We cannot force doctors to perform any abortion, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that some situation may occur in Congress,” the governor said then.
The law does not oblige any medical personnel to perform abortions, but it does requires the State to have specialists who can do it.
Jiménez has never met with feminist groups, but she has met, for example, with the National Front for the Family, with whom she has even signed public policy agreements.
From the entry into force of the reform, any woman or pregnant person who decides to terminate her pregnancy after six weeks will be punished with imprisonment of between 3 and 6 months and payment of a fine of between 500 and 1,000 days. The sanction for the staff doctor who practices it is greater: 6 to 1 year in prison and 1,500 to 2,000 days of fines.
The reform not only penalizes women who decide to have an abortion by their own decision, but also those who do so involuntarily, since The criminal sanction for those who commit abortion in a negligent manner is extendedthat is, spontaneously or for some health reason.
And he puts one more obstacle: Two specialist doctors will diagnose whether there is “sufficient reason to determine that the abortion was spontaneous or that the product presents genetic alterations”.
The proposed reform to the Penal Code reached Congress only on August 23, the same day it was referred to the Justice Commission, chaired by Luis Enrique García López, also a member of the PAN, who is being investigated for a multimillion-dollar embezzlement in Congress, revealed in a journalistic investigation in 2021.
“A woman’s right to decide about her body, although essential, is not considered absolute in all cases.This right must be balanced with other equally important rights, such as right to life“, the initiative stated, which includes arguments without scientific support, such as that women who decide to have an abortion suffer from “Psychiatric disorders as a response to emotional dysregulation”.
She adds that Aguascalientes is “the first family-friendly state in the country,” although the entity has occupied the top spots in the country in cases related to domestic violence and violence against women.
Angelica Contrerasfrom Cultivating Gender, explains that after the decriminalization At least 70 women and pregnant people had access to safe abortions in state clinicsThe organization also perceived less fear of asking for reports, however, The local health system continued to hinder access to abortion and the government completely closed the dialogue with the social organizations that promoted it.
“What we saw was a change in people’s mood. The problem was that this was not reflected in the care services, because although there are allies within these systems, other people sought to hinder them, for example, by telling them that they had to pass their case to the Abortion Committee so that it could evaluate and decide whether or not they could proceed. This, in addition to questioning their decision, delays the procedure by turning it into a bureaucratic matter, and then the permitted time period, which is 12 weeks, had already passed. With the reform, it will be worse because it criminalizes even more.”