[WITHDRAWN] Care Beyond Borders: How Mexican Abortion Advocates Respond to Shifting Legal Landscapes of Abortion Care in the United States

Background: In September 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court voted to decriminalize abortion at the federal level. Less than one year later, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling that ended the right to constitutional abortion care. These contrasting legislative shifts opened up new avenues of abortion care to support pregnant people across borders. This study examined how abortion advocates in Mexico–called acompañantes–respond to the widening legal access of abortion in Mexico to facilitate abortion care for those now stranded in legally-restricted settings in the United States.

Methods: This research draws on 24 in-depth interviews with Mexican abortion advocates, supplemented by three months of participant observation. Interviews lasted on average 90 minutes. Participants ranged in age from 24 to 55. On average, participants had worked as acompañantes for 5 years, and ranged from 2 years to over 15 years. Almost all participants identified as cisgender, 50 percent identified as bisexual and 20 percent as lesbian. 25 percent were mothers, having between 1 and 4 children, and nearly half (45%) had experienced their own abortion. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, translated into English, and analyzed using a flexible coding approach.

Findings: Participants made clear that legislative changes are not contained by borders, and neither is abortion care. Indeed, participants highlighted the ways in which legal changes transgress borders, noting how the fall of Roe v. Wade has generated ongoing implications in Mexico and beyond. Additionally, while participants recognized that the Supreme Court decision was a “huge recession of rights,” many also emphasized that abortion does not have to be legal for it to be safe. Drawing on their experiences of facilitating safe self-managed abortion care in legally-restrictive settings, the participants agreed that the changing legal landscape of abortion care might allow pregnant people in the U.S. to “learn more about their bodies, their autonomy, and to have their abortions safely and comfortably at home.” Importantly, many advocates shared sharp critiques of the U.S. and called on the people of the U.S. to work in solidarity with them. As one participant implored: “will the people of the United States work in solidarity with the green wave?”

Implications: This study provides important implications for social work policy and practice. By centering the narratives of the advocates who are currently navigating the contradictory terrain of both increasing criminalization and legalization of abortion across borders, this study highlights how policies are perceived, lived, and resisted on the ground. Furthermore, this study suggests we pay particular attention to the ways in which abortion advocates shape and redefine care in legally-restricted settings, in order to develop a broader understanding of abortion service provision. In doing so, the findings of this study may inform models of reproductive care grounded in mutual aid and community support. Ultimately, this study provides critical insights that may inform ongoing efforts of reproductive justice within and beyond the field of social work.