Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca May 28, 2009

•    May 28th, International Day of Action for Women’s Health
•    We urge the local congress to legalize the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
•    Forced pregnancy is a form of slavery: Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
•    Prohibition of abortion is a form of torture: Committee Against Torture.

To all:

We are deeply affected by the secrecy and dangerous conditions in which abortions are conducted in our state, conditions which constitute a serious problem of Public Health, social justice, and lack of democracy, and which principally harm the poorest of women and adolescents, both women and men.

As women we are capable of making decisions about our own lives, which should be supported by the government and respected by society at large.  Maternity should be a personal choice made with dignity and joy, not an imposition of the government, the church, or anyone else.

Advances in the respect and exertion of women’s sexual and reproductive rights require an effort of the state legislature consistent with the international legal frame and resolutions by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN); which indicates the supremacy of the rights of the woman over those of the conceived.  In addition it is clear that we must also address the social necessity of protecting women against discrimination on the basis of their social condition, one of the reasons that the local congress has the current ethical and political obligation to advance the matter of abortion in the legislature, in agreement with reforms approved by ALDF, that guarantees that a woman, who has so decided, can interrupt her pregnancy until week twelve of gestation.

Since 1987, the date May 28th has celebrated the “International Day of Action for Women’s health”, as proposed by the World-wide Network of Women for Reproductive Rights.  Beginning with the Program of Action from the Conference of Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, and continuing en the Platform of Action from the Global Women’s Conference in Beijing; just as were conducted treaties and conventions for human rights such as the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW.

Health, and sexual and reproductive rights are human and civil rights.  The State therefore should guarantee, protect and promote them. With regard to this matter, the Partnership for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality in Oaxaca notes that:

Facing this situation the Committee against Torture in its recent sessions reunited in a period 42 of sessions in the Swiss city, Geneva;  it mentioned in its report on the Central American nation (Nicaragua), that the prohibition of abortion is a form of torture for the victims of sexual aggressions since it means “a constant exhibition to the violations committed against them” and supposes “a serious traumatic stress with the risk of suffering prolonged psychological problems, such as anxiety and depression”, urging the Nicaraguan State to revert the legal reform of 2006.

Well for all that the Mexican state does, in the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice which validated the legalization of the abortion, minister Góngora Pimentel argued that forced pregnancy implies a form of slavery because it subjects a woman to a period of gestation against her will; in addition that it discriminates against women in regard to their social condition in that the health problems generate by abortions affect poor women the most.

With this in mind, we demand of the local legislature that it perform its duty to guarantee the life and right of women to choose or deny motherhood. The legalization of voluntary interruptions of unwanted pregnancies has been a demand that attempts to construct citizenship and democracy in a lay state. It is for that reason that we demand that the Local Congress, far from any dogmatism, religion or belief, that it make human rights real and effective for women.

And if this obligation is not so fulfilled, we affirm that reforms in the states are political actions that, using the sovereign power of the local legislatures, limit and reduce the rights of the women to a freely chosen pregnancy, or the right of women to decide not to be mothers. If we take into account the objective of the CEDAW, to guarantee the respect of human dignity and to assure the rights in conditions of equality between men and women, we see that the Mexican State has failed in all aspects regarding sexual and reproductive rights. This failure has only aggravated the conditions of inequality between men and women and, worse even, between women themselves. They, we, are limited in the form and possibility to make our own sexual and reproductive choices.

For the free choice of the Women!

The rights of the women cannot be converted into merchandise or exchanged between Political Parties!

Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality in Oaxaca.