When pregnant American women flee to Mexico

"Hello, I've been pregnant for two weeks," says the first contact. For others it is eight weeks. Or six. When Sandra Cardona's cell phone rings or WhatsApp messages arrive, the Mexican from Monterey knows that a woman on the other side of the line needs help.

Cardona is one of the founders of the aid organization "Necesito Abortar Mexico" (in English: I have to have an abortion, Mexico), which supports women in need. In recent weeks there have been more and more inquiries from a neighboring country: the USA.

In June, the so-called "Roe vs. Wade" ruling was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Until then, it regulated the constitutional right to abortion. Because there hasn't been a comprehensive federal law since then, the states now have to decide on the legality of abortions again. And that's why abortions are now banned again in some Republican-governed states, for example in Texas near the border.

Up until the day of the verdict, Necesito Abortar Mexico received about two to three calls a day, immediately after that the number rose to 70 a day, and on certain days more than two-thirds of the calls for help came from the United States. "We have accompanied about 2,000 women so far," says Cardona. Women even came from France or Germany, apparently because they had exceeded the 12-week limit in this country, within which abortion is still legally permitted. "That surprised us," says Cardona. Verónica Cruz from the women's rights organization "Las Libres" from Guanajuato in central Mexico made a similar statement: "Since the verdict, we have received around 100 calls a day from Texas alone."

And other phenomena have also increased since the Supreme Court ruling - such as the supply of drugs that can induce an abortion or advice on how to carry out an abortion at home. "In Mexico, self-controlled abortion with drugs at home, accompanied by collectives and others, was always relevant," Isabel Fulda Graue from the organization "GIRE", which campaigns for abortion rights in Mexico, recently told the Texas Tribune. For example, because shipping misoprostol to Texas carries a penalty of up to two years in prison or a $10,000 fine, the shipments are often clandestine. There are no official statistics on this.

In Mexico, too, abortions were illegal for a long time, which is why the women concerned had to organize themselves in the shadows. And it is precisely this knowledge that affected American women would now fall back on, says Fulda Graue. Abortions have been legal in the Mexican state of Oaxaca since 2019, and other states have since been added.

Especially in the capital Mexico City, whose regional government under the current President Andres Manuel López Obrador pushed ahead with legal liberalization, clinics have specialized in abortions. They are popular with affected US citizens because they are easily accessible via direct flights and guarantee them a certain degree of anonymity.

The situation is different in the Republican-governed states. In the window of a diner called "Pizza Joint" in the Texas border town of El Paso, a so-called "abortion finder" hangs in the window between concert announcements and the offer of the day - a kind of "emergency meeting place". He establishes a first contact between women who have become pregnant unintentionally and people who want to help them terminate the pregnancy.

There are non-binding tips and hints over a coffee. It is not an official counseling center, which would ultimately be illegal, but one of many contact points for women that have arisen out of necessity and are organized by volunteers and who have to constantly change their location.

The QR code of the "Abortionfinder" in the shop window serves as a hidden signal that there is a reasonably safe retreat here to describe personal difficulties if it is not possible in one's own private rooms. The fact that a pizza shop has to serve as the backdrop for an initial medical consultation shows the level at which women's rights have now arrived in Texas.

Less than 300 meters away, in a church, opponents of abortion make their position clear. "We value both" reads a poster showing a mother with a child in her arms. Above it is the handwritten addition: "That still applies".

However, the heated debate on abortion did not bring the Republicans the momentum they had hoped for in the midterm elections. Many conservative women are also critical of the new legal chaos, which is why quite a few Republican voters distanced themselves from their own party or stayed at home.

US President Joe Biden, who with his Democrats has always sharply criticized the Supreme Court's decision, therefore interpreted the election result of the Midterms as a vote against the annulment of the verdict: "Women in America have made their voices heard," the President said a few days ago in front of supporters in the Howard Theater in Washington. And thanks to Sandra Cardona, they're heard in Mexico too.