ARTICLES

Where Abortion Is Illegal

Twenty Minutes from Downtown San Diego

By Celia Reyes

"So far I know of no doctor who performs abortions, and if I knew of any, I would immediately notify the Medical Society's Ethics Committee," said Dr. Agustin Escobar Fematt, president of the Medical Society of Tijuana. "Personally, I am opposed, because it will never be a family planning method, and besides, you're assaulting a helpless being." Dr. José Bustamante Moreno, who heads Health District 2, which comprises the cities of Tijuana, Rosarito and Tecate, mentioned that there could be doctors who are doing abortions, but under no circumstance is it normally allowed in Baja California.

Abortion is allowed in Baja California when a woman is raped or when her life is at risk, José Luis Hernández, an attorney, explained. A woman who has been raped has to file a complaint with the Sex Crimes Unit, he said. She must wait some time-- at least a month after the assault-- to have a pregnancy test performed. If she is pregnant, she must go to the state attorney general's office, which, after examining the evidence, will decide whether to grant permission for an abortion.

"An order can be issued to interrupt the pregnancy, but no doctor can be obligated to do it if it violates his principles and moral values," Bustamante said. "If permission is given for an abortion, the doctor has to decide whether or not to do it, mindful that if he does it, he will be known as the abortion doctor." Bustamante said that there is no report of a court order permitting or authorizing an abortion, and no legal abortion has been performed in any of the three cities in our district.

In Tijuana General Hospital, no abortions of any kind are performed, not even for legal reasons, Dr. Gabriel Ernesto Garcia, obstetrics and gynecology chief, told Frontera, the Tijuana daily. Garcia said that a doctor cannot be forced to perform a medical procedure "that goes against his principles," according to Frontera. Garcia told the newspaper that, so far this year, there have been absolutely no reported cases of injured women seeking treatment for problems caused by abortions at General Hospital. "Abortion is not that serious a factor," Frontera reported.

Tijuana's municipal police have reported that the tiny bodies of at least seven illegal abortion victims have been found in various parts of the city since January of this year:

(1) On June 17, an unborn baby between four and five months' gestation was found in a facial tissue box in a vacant lot on Avenida Revolución and Calle Décima [Tenth Street]. (2) The case prior to June surfaced in late May, with the discovery of an unborn baby's remains in a shoe box left on a gravestone in Jardín Cemetery. (3) On May 12, another unborn baby was found on the corner of Calle Segunda [Second Street] and Niños Héroes, wrapped in a newspaper inside a trash container. (4) On March 26, in an apartment in the Lomas Verdes housing project, an unborn baby in a bottle of formaldehyde was found and, in turn, state attorney general's office insignia and surgical instruments. (5) Another unborn baby was found in a room for rent in the northern zone [Zona Norte]; no date is available. (6) Another case turned up in the Soler neighborhood when an unborn baby was found in a vacant lot; no date is available. (7) The last of the reported cases was the unborn baby found in a trash container on Avenida Benton in the La Mesa area; no date is available. The tiny bodies are sent to the Forensic Medical Service, where death certificates are issued for them, according to Dr. Silvestre Fragoso Salazar, the service's director. Then the deaths are reported to the recorder's office, and if a body is not claimed within 15 days, it is buried in a common grave. If the attorney general's homicide unit is examining the body; it is kept refrigerated until the investigation ends, so that a funeral can be held for it later.

This story is translated from a story in the November La Cruz de California, the Catholic monthly distributed in Baja California and in Southern California Hispanic parishes. For more information, call 213-896-9554 or search the website-- www.lacruzdecal.com.

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