Ángeles Cruz Martínez
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, October 21, 2024, p. 17
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church with its conservative positions isolated itself from the people, from the majority of women and men who preserve their religion, but in silent contempt decide the exercise of their sexuality to have or not have children and freedom to enjoy their orientation sexual without guilt or fear, said Aidé García, director of Catholics for the Right to Decide (CDD).
The civil organization celebrates 30 years of work, from a Catholic, ethical and feminist perspective in favor of the sexual and reproductive rights of all people, which has always been a reason for confrontation with archbishops and bishops who, under the protection of political power, have interfered in the country’s educational and health policies.
This was the case with the PRI governments since the 90s with the reform of constitutional article 130 promoted by Carlos Salinas de Gortari, when the State took a step back
to empower the Church. Every day there were violations of secularism
held.
Then, with the PAN members, mainly Vicente Fox, who maintained a closed approach to public education and health policy. Instead, it promoted actions such as Family Day. Mexico hosted two conservative world congresses, he recalled.
In an interview on the occasion of the organization’s anniversary, he stated that CDD emerged from a tradition of fighting for human rights by progressive Christians and with the baggage of liberation theology that question the teachings of the Catholic Church.
We have the right to disagree with moral teachings
to return to the approach of the Second Vatican Council in the 1950s, that the Catholic Church had to change based on new times. He didn’t do it then or now. The Church, as an institution, has not evolved, but the parishioners have and groups like CDD have accompanied that change.
Aidé García remembered and recognized María Consuelo Mejía, feminist and founder of the group that helped and trained many of the women who have collaborated in the development of CDD and in the achievements obtained over the years.
He mentioned the active participation he had in the initiative to reform the 2008 Constitution to include in article 40 that Mexico is a secular Republic.
The amendment was published until 2012 and was essential to stop the Church’s interference in public policies, especially in education and health. But the fight has been long and full of obstacles for there to be comprehensive sexual education from childhood and for the right of women to decide about their reproduction, specifically regarding abortion.
CDD, together with other organizations promoting sexual and reproductive rights, fought for the legal interruption of pregnancy, which was achieved in 2007 in Mexico City, and the various rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) on the constitutionality of this practice and the violation of human rights that the criminalization of women who abort voluntarily or involuntarily implies.
After 13 years in which there were rather setbacks in more than half of the states of the Republic, whose local congresses modified their constitutions to guarantee life from the moment of conception, starting in 2019 this trend was reversed and now in 14 states have made amendments to the same ordinance to decriminalize abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
The next step, which has already begun, is the elimination of the crime of abortion in the criminal codes, as ordered by the SCJN in September 2023. The initiative pending in the Congress of Mexico City will set the precedent for the rest of the country.
For the director of CDD, what already exists in laws, regulations and official standards that guarantee this and other rights, still lacks social change; that is, full respect for the rights of all people; access to health services without obstacles or moral impediments (conscientious objection) by health personnel.
Social change has to reach the entire country, under the logic that We all have the right to live as we like best.
stated Aidé García.
