Women & Change Chapter 4

This chapter titled “Abortion in a Transborder Context” by Norma Ojeda speaks about the issue of abortion for women who live on the U.S.-Mexico border and how they may or may not have reproductive health options. In Mexico abortion is illegal; so many women who may need to have an abortion because they feel this is not the right time in their lives cannot do so in a safe and clean facility. Mexican government only gives 3 exceptions to this law. Women cannot be in trouble or can have an abortion if they had negligent conduct while pregnant, if the pregnancy is the result of a rape or artificial insemination carried out against the woman’s will, or if a therapeutic abortion, where in the option of the attending physician the pregnant woman’s life is in danger unless an abortion is preformed. However, some women (if not most) do not fit this criterion which makes them eligible to either have their child, go the U.S. for an abortion, or have an abortion “in clandestine establishments” which the health department has no idea exists to have an illegal abortion. It is said that the “…Mexican women who wish to have abortion see the border as a space of opportunity to cross over to the other country where they are allowed to decide whether to have an abortion” (57).
I thought that it was interesting that for women seeking abortion or who had an abortion there were many facts such as the age of abortion, age of pregnancy, view and feelings about abortion, motives for abortion and post-abortion. The figure of 53% was given which represents the number of non-Hispanic women who had an abortion before the age of 20, which compared to 49% of Hispanic women who could speak English. I think these high number says how much American culture can affect women who live in these border communities. Another important fact which I extracted from the text that some of the women’s feeling about abortion we that many felt it was a solution to their problem, that it was her right to choose if she wanted to have a baby or not, and some did feel sad or guilty which I feel is very normal. However, I felt it surprised me that many of these women saw it as a solution to a problem. I wonder what kind of problem this could be. Did some not want to be tied to children’s father, could it be the threat of domestic violence, or the lack of finances to take care of a child? What do these feeling say about these women who were thought to not be able to express their own thoughts and feelings because it is a patriarchal society. Just a few thoughts.