Nadine Gasman, Executive Director Of Ipas Mexico

At an event commemorating International Women’s Day earlier this month, Ipas Mexico and partner organizations presented the Tree of Life… for Women’s Lives to Dr. Julio Frenk Mora, Mexico’s Secretary of Health. The tree represents both the diversity of Mexico’s women and the challenges they share in exercising their rights to reproductive health and freedom.

“We believe that it is necessary to protect the right that all women in our country have to make decisions about our own bodies, our present, our future and our lives,” said Nadine Gasman, Executive Director of Ipas Mexico, in the keynote address. “We thank the Ministry of Health for their willingness to receive the Tree of Life… for Women’s Lives and thus commit to improving women’s health and lives.”

The Tree of Life is a latex sculpture on which are hung hundreds of messages and pictures of women. More than 1,500 people participated in the tree’s construction, which took place on April 25th, 2004, during a demonstration held in solidarity with those gathered at the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC.

The Mexican constitution recognizes the right of all individuals to decide in a free, responsible and informed manner whether and when to have children. However, the ability to exercise this right is greatly curtailed for the many women who have little or no access to reproductive-health services and contraceptive methods.

The reality is, according to Gasman, that four women die in Mexico every day due to largely preventable complications related to pregnancy, and unsafe abortion is the third leading cause of these deaths. This constitutes a public-health crisis and a serious problem of social justice, as the vast majority of these deaths are of women living in poverty.

Gasman recognized in her speech the effort that has been made at the Ministry of Health to address women’s health needs. In particular she acknowledged the creation of the National Center for Gender Equity and Reproductive Health, and the ability, commitment and dedication of the officials who work there.

However, she said, “in spite of these efforts, improving women’s health and lives remains a great challenge for these institutions, and the actions undertaken must be reinforced through effective programs and budgets that allow for their implementation.”

Concrete actions called for to prevent women’s illness and death related to pregnancy, abortion and childbirth include:

• Supporting women’s ability to decide freely and responsibly about their sexuality.
• Ensuring women’s access to effective, equitable and quality health-care services, including safe and legal abortion services.
• Improving women’s access to prevention and treatment programs for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV, and cervico-uterine and breast cancer.
• Addressing the unmet demand for contraceptive methods, which is 12% among women of reproductive age who are married or in a consensual union.
• Preventing women from becoming targets of violence.

The Tree of Life initiative was developed by a coalition of nine Mexican women’s groups, including Ipas Mexico, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, DECIDIR (Coalición de Jóvenes por la Ciudadanía Sexual), Equidad de Género, Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia, Grupo de Información a Reproducción Elegida, Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir, Modemmujer, Red por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos en México (ddedser) and Salud Integral para la Mujer.

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For more information, contact media@ipas.org