Without yielding to the intense pressure, received in recent months from radical feminists, the Federal Government of the country and the United Nations Office for Human Rights in Mexico, the Congress of the Southern Mexican state rejected the decriminalization of abortion on Tuesday, March 2. The pro-life victory was overwhelming: there were 7 votes in favor and 13 against.
The deputies overthrew two bills, one that sought to reform the local Constitution, to modify Article 13, which recognizes the right to life from conception, and a collection of changes in the penal and civil codes and in sanitary regulations as well. If approved, aborting fetus would be allowed under any circumstances on free demand until the 12th week of gestation.
The broad rejection of the Congressmen to abortion was manifested twice. First, when rejecting the opinion with the two initiatives to reform the Constitution – 17 votes were necessary for the bill to pass, and they obtained only 7; then, when they were asked if they wanted another opinion to be drawn up that would allow greater consensus, the answer was “no” from 12 Congressmen, and “yes” from 8.
The decision of the legislators was celebrated by various sectors of the population and hundreds of citizens who awaited the result outside Congress, and is of particular relevance because it projects a local occurrence.
It seemed like a new model was being tested to advance the abortion agenda in the region, especially in places where it encounters strong resistance: extremists hijacking Parliaments with the support of local UN offices. Therefore, the tremendous defeat of the “green horde” is great news for the region, especially for Central America.
The kidnapping of Congress and the protection of the UN
Since the night of November 27, some 20 members of the Quintana Roo Feminist Network have forcibly occupied the facilities of the Quintana Roo State Congress. The next day, Congresswoman Ana Pamplona, author of the initiative to reform Article 13 of the Constitution, appeared in the locale as part of a legislative delegation to listen to their demands and guarantee them that they would not be tried for the seizure of the facilities.
With this, they were recognized as valid interrogators and, in fact, they were given the headquarters. All legislative activity stopped.
Local authorities tried to remove the feminists by cutting off water, electricity and access to food services, however, the efforts of the Quintana Roo Human Rights Commission and the Mexican Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN activated the National Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.
On December 22, the Federal Government published a statement in which it gave the extremists the status of “defenders of the rights of women and girls” and asked the state authorities to “create adequate and conducive conditions so that the protesters can exercise their legitimate work, including freedom of expression and the right to protest.”
This way they became “untouchable.”
When, in January, pro-life leaders of Quintana Roo publicly questioned the local Human Rights Commission for speaking out against the fundamental right to life and asked the Governor to remove the incumbent, the UN responded with a statement, along with other state commissions, demanding “respect for the performance and autonomy” of the state body. Abortionists have rights, but those of pro-life do not.
On February 10, the Congress and the Feminist Network signed an agreement that imposed a legislative agenda on the politicians with well-defined deadlines for discussion and voting on the decriminalization of abortion. Consultation forums, committee sessions, expert reports and voting, all in less than 10 days. From February 16 to 24.
In addition, they included 9 more demands to be dealt with by the Congress throughout the year: the creation of the new penal figures for “child feminicide” and “transfemicide”; putting aside the initiative of the “parental pin”, a legal device that allows parents to prevent their children from being exposed to school content with gender ideology; and imposing a “comprehensive sexual education” in the state’s primary and secondary schools, among others.
As if that were not enough, agreement determined that the Congressmen could not make “political or social accusations against the members of the Feminist Network.”
With the signing of the agreement, the Congress was clearly a subject to the whims of a pressure group and its political-ideological agenda.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico published a notice in which it expresses its approval of the terms of the agreement and acknowledges that it offered “technical advice and cooperation” to the Congress for this purpose, but some Congressmen suspect that they also had been advising the invaders from the beginning.
For the “greens” everything is fine … even legislative aberrations
February 24 was the last day of the schedule imposed by the feminists and when the final expert report of the decriminalization initiatives was expected to be voted. Although everything seemed to be going smooth for the “green horde”, things began to unravel.
Feminists needed 17 votes out of 25 to modify the statal Constitution but they did not have that number. For this reason, Congressman José Luis Guillén López proposed to approve decriminalization only through a secondary law, the reform of the penal and civil codes, which required only a simple majority. Article 13 of the Constitution would remain intact, and the bill would only be a “decorative text”.
Obviously, a secondary law cannot go against a primary law. Despite this, the abortionists did do it this way. And in order to make it more pleasing, they reduced the time limit to perform abortions legally from the 12th week of gestation to the 8th. Something similar was done in the neighboring state of Oaxaca in 2019.
The move generated deep annoyance among a significant group of lawmakers. To avoid such a legal aberration, 4 pro-life Congressmen broke the plenum of the session, in which the final opinion would have been voted, and installed a recess. Apparently, something seriously changed that day.
The abortion bloc – Congressmen, feminists and UN officers – was defeated the first time.
According to some sources, the Congressmen were practically divided in half, into two groups, with a few undecided. For this reason, Guillén’s strategy was dangerous. But that day, in addition to the plenum, something else broke, too.
A crushing defeat
In response to the blockade, feminists took control over the Congress again, took the national flag down and replaced it with a green cloth, the symbol of the abortion movement. The following day, in a statement, they declared the noncompliance of the February 10 agreement and asked for a new interlocutor “on federal level”.
They also stated that they were not seeking a reform on the Constitution, but a legalization like the one in Oaxaca, because in addition to not having the necessary votes, the process could halt, as the latter validation of the law is required in most of the state’s municipalities.
Days later, the Government and Political Coordination Board of the Congress announced that it had reached a new agreement with the Feminist Front and that a new schedule would be published on March 2. It seemed that the extremists had regained control over the politicians.
However, the new schedule was never made public. On March 2, a Committee Session was held where a unified opinion was approved which included both the reform of the Constitution – now feared by abortionists – and the reform of the penal and civil codes. With this, a second defeat was imposed on the “greens”. If they wanted to carry out the decriminalization of abortion, they would need 17 votes.
And immediately after that meeting, an ordinary session was opened in plenary and there, as the only point to be discussed, the decriminalization was put to a vote. The result was surprising: 7 in favor and 13 against. Five Congressmen did not vote, but even if they had voted in favor of the “greens” they would have lost. They would have been five votes short of 17. And even in a simple majority vote, they would have had one less vote than pro-life politicians.
For the “greens,” the defeat was monumental. The UN has not yet spoken.
The intense and persevering action of the pro-life organizations, the radicalization and the “traps” of the “greens”, and the firm decision of 13 Congressmen from Quintana Roo changed the game and defeated what seemed to be a new tactic to advance the death agenda in Latin America. It was a local victory positive effects of which will be felt throughout the region.
