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The Crime of Voluntary Abortion

Tijuana Couple Could Get Five Years in Prison

by Bob McPhail

After a successful struggle to save the life of a young woman who began hemorrhaging after aborting her 12-week-old fetus, doctors at a Social Security clinic in Tijuana called the police, who arrested the woman and her boyfriend.

Maricela Ojendis, 19, and her boyfriend, Venustiano Vázquez, 23, face up to five years in prison each under current state law in Baja California for the crime of "voluntary abortion." Venustiano Vázquez was taken into custody immediately, while police stood guard outside the hospital room of Maricela Ojendis. After her recovery, she was to be taken into custody. The case is being handled by the intentional homicide unit of the state attorney general's office.

According to press accounts, Maricela Ojendis was taken to Clinic 7 of the Mexican Social Security Institute after "ingesting various doses" of the anti-ulcer drug Cytotec, which is used illegally in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America to provoke abortions (see related story). "After she arrived at the clinic, doctors were able to save the life of the young woman, but not of the fetus, which is the reason they notified the authorities," the newspaper Frontera reported.The district attorney, after reviewing the facts reported by the doctors, decided to "exercise penal action against the woman and her boyfriend for the crime of voluntary abortion," the newspaper said.

Maricela Ojendis said she took the pills because her boyfriend threatened to abandon her if she decided to have the baby, according to press accounts. After taking the drug, she "began to suffer great pain and hemorrhaging," which is why Vázquez took her to the emergency room.

The press accounts did not say when the alleged crime occurred, but the stories were published on October 1.

Sidebar: Sometimes Resulting in Death.

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