http://www.ipas.org/english/press_room/ ... 132006.asp

March 13, 2006 – Across Mexico, a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of rape has the right to seek a legal abortion. Yet, in reality, when a rape victim tries to claim this right, she often faces a tangle of red tape. Law enforcement officials question the validity of her experience or misinform her about her options, and health-care providers often refuse to perform the abortion.

With all those obstacles, her chances of getting a legal abortion are virtually nonexistent in most Mexican states.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a new report, “The Second Assault: Obstructing Access to Legal Abortion after Rape in Mexico,” at press conferences last week in Mexico City and Guanajuato. Ipas Mexico staff were interviewed for the report and connected HRW investigators with organizations helping rape victims who had been denied abortions throughout the country.

Ipas Senior Research Associate Debbie Billings said: “Through our research, direct accompaniment of rape victims to health-care providers and collaboration with sister organizations, it is clear that women and girls often face outright denial of services or are stalled so severely that a safe abortion becomes impossible. Advances are being made in some places, such as Mexico City, where guidelines about the obligations of legal and health sectors to provide rape victims a full range of services, including legal abortion, have been developed. But most states don’t have guidelines or register any progress in implementing legal procedures.”

Human Rights Watch researcher and report author Marianne Mollman conducted interviews in nine Mexican states and documented the nearly insurmountable process a pregnant rape victim must follow to get an abortion. First, women must report their assault to police or special public prosecutors who may be located far from the woman’s home. Women who overcome the hurdles of distance, fear and costs for legal action are often confronted by authorities who mock them or accuse them of sexual immorality.

Few women actually take that step. The report cites estimates that only 10 percent of rape victims ever file a complaint, a small fraction of the approximately 120,000-130,000 rapes the government believes occur each year. Women and girls are hesitant to subject themselves to the “second assault” of scrutiny and disbelief from public officials. But in a legal system where abortion is illegal except under a few circumstances (including rape), victims must brave the bureaucracy to prove their case.

Victims who were raped by family members, especially children and adolescents, have a particularly tough time. Women or girls raped by a relative are encouraged to “work it out” and to “preserve the family.” Under Mexican law, incest is considered consensual intercourse even if the relationship is clearly unequal, such as that between a parent and a child. An incest charge does not qualify a pregnant girl for an abortion.

Sixteen-year-old “Graciela,” interviewed for the report, was raped and impregnated by her father. In her report to the public prosecutor, she stated that “ … I didn’t want to be pregnant, and that’s why I want you to help me to have an abortion, because as I already said, I don’t want to have this child because it is my father’s and I don’t want it.” Considered a victim of “incest” rather than rape, she ultimately was forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

The state of Guanajuato — where the report was released on March 8 and home to “Graciela” — denied that any rape victims requested legal abortions or were ever refused access to abortion.

But “The Second Assault” documents a pattern of obstruction from key medical or legal figures around the country. Some women are given bogus information about the danger of abortion, a procedure that the World Health Organization has certified as safe when performed by trained personnel in appropriate settings. Still other women gain approval for an abortion, but can’t find a provider. Those providers who do abortions function as an undercover network and aren’t visible enough for women to find them without referral.

Human Rights Watch recommends that all states and the federal district of Mexico City create the conditions under which safe abortion can be offered and sanction officials who obstruct women’s and girls’ right to abortion after rape. It also appeals to the federal congress to enact a national law punishing all forms of domestic and sexual violence, including incest and conjugal rape; establish a national age of consent for sexual activity; and repeal parts of the penal code that criminalize abortion.

Dr. Raffaela Schiavon, Director of Ipas Mexico, said that the report is important because it recommended that safe, humane and free abortion services must be made available for abuse victims, and such services must be supported at all levels — from the national Ministry of Health to state governments and judicial systems.

Schiavon said: “Women’s right to legal services means timely access to all the modern abortion technologies. This is about their right to health, but also their right to justice.”