Mexican human-rights activist Veronica Cruz Sanchez will share her story in North Carolina

Today in Raleigh, NC, Veronica Cruz Sanchez, one of Mexico’s most prominent women’s- and human-rights activists and 2006 Human Rights Defender of the Year, will give the first of three area talks, co-sponsored by Ipas, about her work to promote and protect women’s human rights in Mexico.

• January 24, 2008, 5:30 p.m., El Pueblo, Inc., 4 N. Blount Street, Raleigh
• January 27, 2008, 5:00 p.m., CHICLE, 101 E. Weaver Street, Suite G, Carrboro
• January 28, 2008, 6:00 p.m., Duke University, White Lecture Hall, East Campus

Cruz is the founder and executive director of Las Libres (The Free Women), an organization in conservative Guanajuato that helps rape victims obtain safe abortions. In a country where abortion is illegal, except in cases of rape, women who seek safe abortions face considerable hurdles.

The fact that abortion has been legal in cases of rape for more than 30 years in Guanajuato hasn’t stopped opponents’ attempts to criminalize it in every circumstance. In 2000, the state legislature tried to pass an amendment to the penal code that stripped rape victims of their right to an abortion. Cruz organized hundreds of women to publicly protest the new law. Her tactic worked — public pressure led the governor to veto the legislation.

In addition to legislative assaults on their rights, rape victims in Cruz’s home state of Guanajuato face other obstacles when they wish to terminate a pregnancy. Officials in public hospitals and family service centers try to dissuade rape victims from choosing abortion and often attempt to delay victims’ access to legal abortion.

The myriad attacks on their legal right to a safe and free abortion often force rape victims into back alley abortions, therefore endangering their lives. Cruz and her organization provide a voice for these women and work tirelessly to ensure them access to their legal right: safe abortion services.

“To me, it is an essential and basic right of all women to have the power to make decisions about their body, their sexuality and their reproductive health,” she was quoted in an interview with Semillas, a Mexican philanthropic women’s-rights organization. She’ll talk further about her work to promote and protect women’s human rights today at El Pueblo and later this week at the CHICLE and Duke venues.

For more information, contact media@ipas.org