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Ethical concerns about abortion in Mexico.

Contents
The situation of abortion in Mexico ...................................................................... 2
Thesis statement ................................................................................................. 3
Main arguments:.................................................................................................... 3
Does a fetus have human rights? ........................................................................ 3
A mother’s right to decide .................................................................................... 4
What does the future hold for these children? ..................................................... 4
Conclusion:.............................................................................................................. 5
Sources: ................................................................................................................. 7

“I aborted due to the fact that I didn’t want a child. Sounds simple, doesn’t
it? I had 16 years and I was in Highschool… …Even now that I’m 30 years old I
still do not want it (a child). I’m independent and economically stable… …Having a
baby should be a choice, not an obligation.” -Luz, Mexico.
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Introduction
Abortion is defined as the early ending of a pregnancy, this occurring due to
surgical or medical intervention with the purpose of not giving birth. Abortion should
not be confused with the term “miscarriage”, which is the spontaneous death of a
baby/fetus.

The situation of abortion in Mexico

It has been 11 years since abortion was made legal in the Distrito Federal so
long as the pregnancy period hasn’t exceeded more than 12 weeks. This makes the
D.F. the only state in Mexico that legally allows abortions without needing to justify
it. As such, the number of legal abortions that have been registered from April 2007
to March 2018 is of approximately 200,000 in all of the Country (according to
statistics from the SEDESA of CDMX). In any other state, it’s stated by law that the
abortion can only go through so long as it is justified (ex: being a product of a
violation).

Ever since this decision, (and even before it), the opinion about abortion has
been divided. There exists people and organizations such as “Movimiento Civíl
Profamilia Pro-vida” (MCPP) and “Fundación Incluyendo México” who completely
oppose the idea of abortion – be it legal or illegal. “The family is the principal
fundament of society that should be protected against the ideology of gender and
sexual rights that promote the destruction of the family and Christian faith.” -Ps Jose
Linares Cerón, International President of the MCPP.

Just as there exists “pro-life” organizations, so do too “pro-abortion”

organizations. The “Alianza Nacional por el Derecho a Decidir” or ANDAR for short,
is a coalition of at least 5 other organizations whose main objective is to reinforce
the sexual and reproductive rights of women in Mexico and to better the conditions
of the legal and safe access to abortions. They argue that their best interests lay in
the safety of the women who seek safe means of aborting an unwanted baby without
being reprehended by the law. So then, is it immoral to “kill” something that hasn’t
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been born yet? Can we really define a fetus as a “living being”? Is it possible to justify
the loss of a potential life?

Thesis statement

It is in this essay that we shall look at how abortions stand in an ethical way
when considering things like the quality of life of the mother, the future and safety of
the child and the alternatives to this procedure. My personal opinion on the matter is
that abortion should not be seen as a mean to correct one’s mistakes, but as a way
of sparing a child a life of misery, be it from a mother who rejects them or a disability
that will forever scar their life in a significant way (such as a malformation that would
result in their suffering and death shortly after being born).

The main purpose of this paper is to prove the ethical rightness of abortion.
This means that we shall take a look to the topic with a couple of ethical systems in
hand, namely: Immanuel Kant’s and the Utilitarian systems. On a first instance, we
will first go over the human rights that may apply to an unborn baby and how do
these relate to Immanuel Kant’s ideas on the subject of human dignity. Then, we
shall judge the concept and action of aborting via a Utilitarian point of view
considering the consequences on the long run for both aborting and choosing not to.
It is with these ethical points of view that we will be able to determine if abortion is
ethically right or wrong.

Main arguments:

Does a fetus have human rights?

When treating the subject of abortion, the question about the very nature of a
fetus is one of many that make this theme so complicated. When is a fetus
considered a human being and, by extension, when does it acquire basic human
rights? The answers to these questions thread into many territories of human
knowledge: philosophy, biology, psychology, religion, etc. So, to further simplify the
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matter, we shall be taking a scientific approach to these questions (due to the

“neutral” nature of science itself).

Ricki Lewis, PhD in genetics, defines “The ability to survive outside the body
of another” as the way a true living being should be defined. Given this definition, a
human fetus should not be considered a living being until 21 weeks into the gestation
process, for this is the earliest a baby could be born (prematurely) and have a small
chance of surviving without the aid of its mother’s womb. It is with this explanation
that we have established when exactly is a fetus considered a human being who is
entitled to any human right.

A mother’s right to decide

Moving on to the ethical dilemma that presents abortion: Since a fetus is not
truly a living being until 21 weeks into the gestation process, we can safely assume
that in the case an abortion is necessary, we would not be compromising the basic
human right that establishes the right of life to any human being. In fact, certain
human rights in certain cases may even demand the right to abort. Such cases would
be when the mother is in mortal danger due to the baby (again, right of life) and also,
if the parents did not find themselves in the best conditions to give the child an
adequate living standard.

Even when taking Immanuel Kant’s core ideas about the respect for persons
into account, these still only apply to what we’d acknowledge as a human being, and
since a fetus is not considered a proper human being until a set amount of time, such
values from Immanuel do not apply to the concept of an early abortion.

What does the future hold for these children?

Next, we shall take a look at the same problem of abortion from a different
point of view: An Utilitarian point of view. When we perceive the issue at hand with
such point of view, we must distant ourselves from what involves an abortion and
see further into the results of both going through with it and not doing it at all.
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First, we shall look at the possible consequences of not being able to abort:
According to the UNICEF in their yearly report of 2016, for every 2 children in the
country, one of them is poor, and for every 10 children who live in poverty, 2 of them
must endure extreme poverty conditions. Moreover, 6 out of every 10 children
between the ages 1 and 14 have endured some form of violent discipline method.
Furthermore, 1 out of every 5 women between the ages of 15 and 19 years old have
had a child in 2015. This data helps us realize the possibilities in which an unwanted
child could be brought to this world, by realizing just how many children could be
born into poverty, how many could be abused and how many could have an
unwanted pregnancy (thus furthering the cycle) we can easily see the amount of
misery generated from these births.

Now, when looking at the amount of misery generated from the ability to abort
if necessary, many of these elements could easily be cut out of the equation entirely.
Seeing as how if a child born in any of these conditions (for instance, poverty) could
lead to a worse outcome than not letting them suffer these conditions at all, the clear
moral choice, under the Utilitarian point of view, is to spare the child the grim future
that awaits him.

One may argue that the data presented here is not, by any means, a
predetermined future for every kid, and this supposition is right. However, when we
talk about abortions, we see would be mothers who do not desire their child to be
born, be it for a medical problem or, for the most common reason, lack of resources.
This immediately puts the future child into a zone where his development and
happiness would not be able to be fully achieved, meaning that without the choice
of abortion, the probability for the total misery of the world to rise given these
conditions would be far bigger than the temporal sadness caused by aborting.
Therefore, under a Utilitarian point of view, abortion is the right thing to do under
certain circumstances.

Conclusion:
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Though the previous arguments provide a considerable amount of evidence

as to why abortion is not immoral, there will always be cases in which none of the
aforementioned examples may apply. In order to properly justify an abortion, we
should first look at the person’s background and see if their reasons for aborting are
legitimate enough (based on the criteria discussed in the previous arguments and
also the local laws). A good example of a well-controlled abortion environment is the
D.F. where abortion is given enough freedom to be exercised by people who do not
think bringing a child to this world would be a good idea. Abortion should be legal,
but only under special circumstances.

Ultimately, the choice to abort will befall on the person who decides to go
through with it, but be it as it may, if their choice is one that may lead to a better
future for everyone, one who aborts should not bear the weight of guilt of terminating
a would-be human being.
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Sources:

CDD), Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir Equidad de Género:

Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia (Equidad) (GIRE), Grupo de Información en
Reproducción Elegida México, Ipas Population Council, México. (2017).
Andar - Por el derecho a decidir. 11/02/2018, de ANDAR Sitio web:
http://www.andar.org.mx/

Ipas. (2015). En México, Andar lanza una campaña para que las
mujeres conozcan más sobre los servicios de aborto seguro, gratuito y
legal en el Distrito Federal. 11/02/2018, de IPAS Sitio web:
http://www.ipas.org/es-MX/News/2015/April/In-Mexico-City--National-
Alliance-for-the-Right-to-Choose-launches-campaign-to-help-women-
.aspx

IPAS. (2016). EL MOVIMIENTO A FAVOR DEL ABORTO SEGURO

Y LEGAL TIENE UN ALCANCE MUNDIAL. 11/02/2018, de IPAS Sitio web:
https://spotlight.ipas.org/el-movimiento-a-favor-del-aborto-seguro-y-legal-
tiene-un-alcance-mundial

Kraus, A. (2017). Aborto en México: nuevas leyes, terrible realidad.

11/02/2018, de El Universal Sitio web:
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/entrada-de-opinion/articulo/arnoldo-
kraus/nacion/2017/05/21/aborto-en-mexico-nuevas-leyes-terrible

Clínicas Aborto. (2018). Leyes del aborto en cada estado de México.

11/02/2018, de Clínicas Aborto Sitio web: https://www.clinicas-
aborto.com.mx/legislacion/leyes-del-aborto-en-cada-estado-de-mexico/

Galán, A. Montaner, D. Eugenia, M. Valbuena, D. Ruiz, V. Aguilar,

C. Dopazo, J. Simón, C. (2010). Functional Genomics of 5- to 8-Cell Stage
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Human Embryos by Blastomere Single-Cell cDNA Analysis. 22/03/2018,

de PLOS one Sitio web:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0013615

UNICEF. (2016). Situación de la infancia en México. 22/03/2018, de

UNICEF Sitio web: https://www.donaunicef.org.mx/informe-
anual/?utm_source=mpr_med&utm_campaign=informe-anual16-
com&utm_medium=comunicado&utm_content=informe-
anual16&utm_term=informe-anual16

SEDESA. (2018). Información sobre pacientes atendidos en

servicios de ILE en la Ciudad de México. 15/04/2018, de SEDESA CDMX
Sitio web: http://ile.salud.cdmx.gob.mx/estadisticas-interrupcion-legal-
embarazo-df/