Initiative for the decriminalization of abortion rejected in Guanajuato

Guanajuato, Mexico (Tuesday, May 26, 2020) .- Representatives from the Justice and Public Health Commissions rejected this Tuesday May 26th, the initiative on the decriminalization of abortion in Guanajuato, declaring it inadmissible with three votes in favor and six against.

In a virtual session, legislators from the Guanajuato Congress, most of them PAN members, rejected the request to analyze the issue for longer, an initiative proposed by local representatives from Morena and the Revolution Democratic Party (PRD).

In recent days, virtual discussion forums were held led by different sectors of society, with the participation of civil organizations that defend women, feminists, representatives of associations that reject the termination of pregnancy, religious ministers, as well as officials representing the Ministry of Health, the Women’s Institute, the State Attorney General’s Office, the Governor’s General Legal Coordination, and the State Attorney’s Office for Human Rights.

Alberto Estrella Ortega, representative of the Human Rights Ombudsman, stated that it is in the hands of the legislators to value the sexual and reproductive rights of women and also the right to life.

Last Monday, the local PAN representative, Luis Antonio Magdaleno Gordillo, declared that women who resort to termination of pregnancy are prone to developing personal disorders, which can cause addictions to alcohol, drugs, even suicide.

In the last interventions of the analysis of this initiative, Magdaleno Gordillo assured that the women who abort carry with them “a moral harshness”, since “they are psychologically ill”.

In the framework of the discussion on the decriminalization of the termination of pregnancy in Guanajuato, this Tuesday May 26, feminist groups protested and vandalized the Arco de la Calzada de los Héroes, a wall of the metropolitan cathedral of León, the PAN Municipal Committee building and other properties near the State Congress.

Later on, at noon, during the session of the United Health and Justice Commissions, groups identified as Provida went to the metropolitan cathedral of León to clean and remove the paint from the facade.

Finally members of the group known as: Verde Aquelarre collective indicated that they will not take a step back until abortion is legal in Guanajuato.