Decriminalization of Abortion/Mexico Under Nature’s Attack

Earthquake response. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that there was no serious damage reported from a 7.1 earthquake that struck southwestern Mexico on Tuesday evening. “Before 9 p.m., the earthquake was felt strongly in Mexico City, it had, as is known, its epicenter in Acapulco, Guerrero. Fortunately, there is no major damage. Until now, one victim, a young man who was driving a motorcycle, lost his life. This was in Guerrero.” López Obrador also asked citizens not to be afraid and that they must move forward. “We have to face these adversities and move forward, move forward as we have always done, because of our cultures, our strengths, because of the cultural greatness of Mexico, because of the greatness of our people.”

Hurricane Grace. After the passage of Hurricane Grace, the government said that 110,000 homes were affected in Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo. López Obrador lamented the floods in Tula, Hidalgo, and said that the families of patients who died at the IMSS hospital are already being cared for. In addition, he said that together with local governments, the federal government is acting to protect the population. “They suffered from the overflowing Tula river and from the flooding of the social security hospital. This caused the death of 17 people in total, most of them due to the flood. Very unfortunate, very sad, the families of those who lost their lives are being cared for.”

Abortion criminalization. López Obrador described the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) ruling that struck down a law that criminalized abortion as “a unanimous decision that must be respected.” The ruling ends the criminalization of the interruption of pregnancy in its initial stage, meaning that women in every region of the country who decide to have an abortion cannot be punished. “It is a decision of the Judicial Power of the Court that was practically unanimous, which must be respected. We should not, in my case, take sides because there are conflicting positions. … From now on, it will not be possible, without violating the criteria of the Court and the Constitution, to prosecute any woman who has an abortion in the cases that this constitutional court has considered valid. From now on, a new path of freedom, clarity, dignity and respect for all pregnant women, but especially women, begins. Today is one more step in the historic struggle for their equality, for their dignity and for the full exercise of their rights.”

Letter to Biden. Given the latest migration problems in Mexico, López Obrador stressed that his government is attending to the issue with special care to protect people in transit from criminal groups. For this reason, he announced that he had already sent a letter to US President Joe Biden seeking resources to address the causes underpinning the migration issue.

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Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish