As more U.S. states make abortion illegal, a group called “Las Libres” [“Les [femmes] free”]helps American women who wish to have an abortion. the New York Times devoted a video report to them.
In Guanajuato, Mexico, Verónica Cruz created a “feminist collective for the defense of human rights”. As the report explains, she and the other activists in the group “have been campaigning for nearly twenty years for women’s access to abortion in Mexico, a country marked by a high rate of rape and domestic violence”.
Exploding demand
Since June 24, and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs Wade, the collective has seen an explosion of requests from the United States. Even as their own Supreme Court decriminalized abortion just over a year ago, Las Libres find themselves doing what they never thought they should: “Help their northern neighbors.”
Indeed, as Verónica Cruz confides, since the end of June, the association has gone from ten calls a day to a hundred.
“While the calls came mainly, until then, from Texas, Oklahoma or Florida, they are now coming from all over the United States.”
Very often the women who contact them are in distress and feel like they are doing something wrong. Veronica and the other volunteers reassure them and talk to them.
Delivery of abortion pills
Las Libres also provide concrete assistance to women who request them. The delivery of abortion pills is done within three days, but to protect its action, the collective did not wish to show how the pills were transported to the other side of the border. With regard to obtaining these drugs, the report explains that “the Las Libres association obtains the tablets thanks to private donors and pharmaceutical companies” who deliver pills that are close to their expiry date.
States like Texas and Arizona “passed laws prohibiting the supply of the abortion pill”. Distributing such tablets can lead to jail time. In addition, in 19 states, the prescription of abortion drugs from a distance, or the fact of supporting a woman in her efforts, is prohibited.