Blogs Comment On Mexican Abortion Laws, Health Reform Costs, Other Topics

26.04.2010 The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "10-Year-Old Mexican Rape Victim Denied Abortion," Sarah Menkedick, Change.org's "Women's Rights": Freelance writer Menkedick examines the case of a pregnant 10-year-old girl in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which "recently passed draconian laws criminalizing abortion." Authorities have refused to allow the girl, who allegedly was raped by her stepfather, to have an abortion. According to Menkedick, Quintana Roo permits abortions in the cases of rape "but only if the abortion is performed in the first 90 days of pregnancy," a window that the girl missed by one month. After authorities failed to inform the girl of her right to have an abortion when her pregnancy first was first reported last month, state Attorney General Francisco Alor Quezada commented, "I do not think there is another instance in which the girl could be in better hands." Menkedick retorts that the girl would be in better hands "if she wasn't being forced to give birth at age 10, when her chance of dying in childbirth is five times higher than that of" older women, or "if she lived in a country that didn't make it so difficult for rape victims to get abortions," or "if her country did not pass laws which throw women in jail for having abortions." Menkedick continues that the "nonchalance of the state attorney general only mimics the general unconcern of Mexican politicians for the fate of women." She adds, "This is not the 'right to life' -- it is the right of arrogant, ignorant male politicians to rob a child of her psychological and physical wellbeing," concluding, "It is the right of the country's governments to reaffirm their complete and total power [over] women's bodies, and to go on exercising it with impunity" (Menkedick, "Women's Rights," Change.org, 4/22).

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