Mexico & Nafta - September 2010 (ISSN 1741-444X)

At least six women are in prison in Guanajuato convicted of murdering their kin (homicidio en razón de parentesco). In English, they have aborted a child. 

Most are facing 25 years in jail. All of them are poor, some barely literate. Four of the women did not complete their primary education. At least two of the pregnancies were the result of rape. Four of the women were jailed when they were either 18 or 19. Four of them already have children.

It is not clear, from statements given to pro-abortion rights activists, whether the women even understood they were pregnant. Most of them appear to have had  miscarriages, on at least one occasion after being beaten up, rather than deliberately aborting a child. The accusation that at least one woman had aborted came from a doctor, who may herself have been frightened of being accused of involvement in an illegal termination.

Even in Guanajuato miscarriages are not criminal. Under Article 158 of the Guanajuato penal code, abortion is defined as the deliberate killing of the product of conception at any point after the start of a pregnancy. The sentence prescribed for such an offence is between six months and three years in jail, not 25.

What the six women have been convicted of is offences under Article 156, which covers murdering direct descendants, partners or parents and carries a 25-year jail sentence. Under Article 156, there is no remission of sentence.