Hundreds of babies saved from abortion in Mexico by volunteers who counsel women outside hospital entrances

Six months after abortion was legalized in Mexico’s capital – the Federal District – abortion is being practiced regularly in only six of the 14 public hospitals of the city, according to Jorge Serrano Limón, longtime leader of the pro-life movement in Mexico.

In three other hospitals, medical personnel have performed only a few abortions because of resistance from doctors and nurses. And in another five hospitals, medical personnel have refused to perform any abortions at all. In addition to this “conscientious objection” by doctors and nurses, the pro-life movement is engaged in “hand to hand combat” at the entrances of the hospitals that do perform abortions in Mexico City, says Serrano. Pro-lifers have succeeded in “snatching away from death” hundreds of babies that otherwise would have been aborted, he said. Outside the hospitals, volunteers from Centro de Ayuda de la Mujer (Women’s Help Center), an organization dedicated to helping pregnant women who are thinking of having an abortion, have offered women various kinds of help, including ultrasounds, specialized pre-natal medical services, shelter during pregnancy if needed, economic help and job training, and counseling and psychological orientation and support. There are now 40 Women’s Help Centers across Mexico, an organization founded just 12 years ago. Since its founding, the Help Centers have succeeded in rescuing more that 15,000 boys and girls from abortion. In the last four months in Mexico City, the organization has established “mobile Help Centers,” units that bring counselors outside the hospitals where abortions are being performed. Volunteers place their light plastic tables at a hospital entrance, with a sign saying, “Have You Thought About Interrupting Your Pregnancy? The Law Requires That You Be Well-Informed!” Counselors at the mobile units try to persuade women to visit a Women’s Health Center, “then counselors and Providence do the rest,” said Serrano. Using this method, he said, more than 500 babies have been rescued from abortion in just four months. In addition to multiple locations in Mexico City, there are Women’s Help Centers in 23 other cities in the country. In Tijuana, in the first six moths of 2007, 602 women were served. Of them, only 92 aborted. There were 201 births -- 93 girls and 108 boys -- and seven adoptions were arranged. The most recently established Women’s Help Center is in Ensenada, which, in its first three months of operation, has secured the volunteer collaboration of various medical specialists. The center in Ensenada also has the support of a well-established women’s shelter -- Vida y Familia (Life and Family) -- in Mexicali, the state capital. At the shelter, women get a home and health care during and after pregnancy.

Notícia daqui.