The Daily: An Invitation to Mexico City

May 20, 2022

Welcome to the weekend. This week on The Daily, we covered America's southern neighbor twice — looking at Mexico's feminist fight for abortion access and at Texas's recently expanded border policing efforts. In this newsletter, we wanted to explore how the two themes of migration and abortion access might be connected.

Texas has taken extensive measures to keep migrants out of the state. But what happens when the tables are turned? Some American women are now considering what options for reproductive health care will be available to them if the leaked Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade becomes official. One option could include traveling to Mexico City, where abortion access is free to all.

Below, we speak with Mexico City's health minister, who offers her city as a destination for reproductive health care — and explains why her city should serve as a model for progressive cities in the U.S.

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The big idea: Will Mexico City become a model for progressive American cities?

The Daily strives to reveal a new idea in every episode. Below, we go deeper on one from our show this week.

The Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized abortion in September 2021.Daniel Becerril/Reuters

After the Mexican Supreme Court decriminalized abortion, the ground shook.

On Sept. 7, 2021, news of the ruling rippled out from Mexico City, jolting the predominantly Roman Catholic country. Later that night, the capital shook again, as a nearly minute-long earthquake rattled the country's southern coast.

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The seismic metaphor is fitting for Mexico, where a majority of people believe abortion access should be illegal. The issue has bitterly divided states across the country, to the point that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has refused to take a position.

In Mexico, access to abortion care is patchy, determined by varying state laws and policies. And over the past two decades, Mexico City has been at the forefront of the country's fight over abortion access, unlike many rural states. Since abortion was legalized in Mexico City in 2007, tens of thousands of women have traveled to the city to seek abortion care.

So as the United States faces its own prospective patchwork of abortion policy, we wanted to ask Dr. Oliva López Arellano, Mexico City's health minister: Is the city a model for progressive American states? And could it become a destination for some American women seeking abortions, should Roe v. Wade be overturned this year?

The state of abortion in Mexico

For decades, women in Mexico resorted to clandestine clinics, traditional midwives and dubious herbal potions to end unwanted pregnancies. As in countries around the world, many women died every year while receiving illicit abortion care.

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This changed in 2007, at least for some women in the country, when Mexico City's legislature legalized abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. It was a watershed vote that set the capital city apart from the rest of Mexico's states, inspired nationwide court battles and sparked social clashes between religious conservatives and liberals. Over the following years, as you heard on Tuesday's show, activists and lawyers successfully pushed for the procedure to be decriminalized in the states of Oaxaca, Hidalgo and Veracruz.

This momentum built to the Supreme Court ruling last fall. But while abortion was decriminalized at the federal level, it was not necessarily made accessible nationwide.

In Mexico, the practicalities of providing abortions are determined at the state level — leaving conservative states, often strongholds for the Roman Catholic Church, to regulate or limit access. As a result, Mexico City has become a destination for women seeking abortion care over the past 15 years.

A health care destination?

Since 2007, roughly 247,000 abortions have been performed by Mexico City health care providers, according to the city's Ministry of Health. Of those patients, 31 percent have been women from outside the city or the country. According to the ministry, no pregnant women have died from those abortion services.

Now, the city's government is inviting American women to access its free services, if abortion care is no longer available where they live. "We are open in solidarity to American women who need an abortion in Mexico City. Abortion is free and legal here," Dr. López Arellano, Mexico City's health minister said today in an interview.

The invitation stands in stark contrast to the message sent by heavy militarization on the American side of the border. It also is drastically distinct from the law in neighboring Texas, where abortion is banned after about six weeks and residents are incentivized to pursue lawsuits against anyone who "aids or abets" a woman seeking an abortion, with rewards up to $10,000.

Dr. López Arellano knows it is unlikely American women will take her up on the offer en masse. The increasing accessibility of medication abortion will make it cheaper and more efficient for women to source those pills within the United States or just across the border, instead of traveling to Mexico City. Still, she believes Mexico City could become a model for American states looking to provide comprehensive health care to all women.

A model for the U.S.

Out of 50 states, 13 have passed so-called trigger laws that would outlaw abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, meaning half of American women of reproductive age stand to lose abortion access.

"This is a setback for women's rights and it is definitely a victory for those who believe women's bodies need to be controlled by someone else," Dr. López Arellano said. "We once saw the U.S. as a reference for abortion rights and access, and we took the U.S. as a model for some of the programs and education that we did in Mexico City."

Still, she believes this moment could compel progressive mayors and governors to re-examine their abortion policy and consider whether they can provide even more robust support for women.

After the draft majority opinion was leaked, governors and mayors in Democratic states were quick to promise to be havens for abortion access, in some cases tweeting less than an hour after the news, and introducing new bills to further strengthen abortion rights.

However, Dr. López Arellano believes support needs to go even further, modeling Mexico City's approach to comprehensive abortion care.

"We need to be clear abortion access is a right — the right to decide what happens in our own body, the right to free development of our personality and the right to health.

"But it is not enough to just provide medical support for abortion," she said. "We must accompany women with advice throughout the full process and provide psychological support, too."

Watching recommendation: "Happening," a new film that explores the intimate effects of abortion in a state where the act is criminalized. Our film critic recently wrote that it "shows you a woman who desires, desires to learn, have sex, bear children on her terms, be sovereign — a woman who, in choosing to live her life, risks becoming a criminal and dares to be free."

From the Audio team: What was your teenage anthem?

Brian Rea

For the season finale of the Modern Love podcast, listeners around the world shared the songs that taught them about love as teens. There were stories of Nat King Cole and One Direction, adrenaline rushes and loneliness, and many hard-won lessons in matters of the heart.

Anna Martin, host of the podcast, recently wrote about the process of putting this episode together, and we wanted to share an excerpt with you here:

I spent most of middle school listening to Usher's "U Got It Bad." It was almost uncanny; the ballad seemed to have been written expressly for me and my debilitating obsession with a drummer in a church band. (To be clear: by "listening to," I mean "crying to, loudly," because the drummer didn't even know my name.)

I feel like everyone has that song. The song that imprinted on them during their lovelorn, hormone-fueled formative years. So for the finale of this season of the Modern Love podcast, we asked listeners about theirs. We wanted to know: What's the song that taught you about love when you were a teenager? (You can listen to the results here.)

The responses poured in from across continents, genres and generations: Laura, from Sydney, Australia, sobbed to "Tiny Vessels" by Death Cab for Cutie because her best friend had a new girlfriend. It made her realize that her feelings went way beyond friendship. Years later, Laura and her best friend are married. […]

Noelia, from Spain, recalled driving with her host mother on the last day of her stay in America before returning home. Noelia described the moment "I've Got a Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas came on the radio. Summer air through the open window, they screamed the lyrics together — formerly strangers, now family.

And then, there was this one email, from a listener in Canada. Brief. Direct. And for me, an emotional gut punch:

"'Girl' by the Beatles. After 55 years that song still makes me blue and yes, I still love her and no, she's not here but with another man." […]

So many listeners sent us their love songs, and I like to think of this podcast season finale as our way of sending listeners a love song back.

Listen to the season finale of Modern Love, and cue up this Spotify playlist of listeners' teenage anthems.

Modern Love Podcast: First Love Mixtape, Side B

Listeners from around the world shared their teenage anthems. From Nat King Cole to One Direction, these are the songs that filled their adolescent hearts with longing and passion.