A New Documentary About Three Women and Their Personal Struggle For Abortion Rights in Mexico

ON SALE NOW (details below)

Abortion is illegal in most circumstances in Mexico. Nevertheless it is estimated that over 500,000 abortions are performed each year in this Latin American nation. In fact, abortion will be the most frequently committed “crime” in Mexico in 2007.

Despite the widespread existence of unscrupulous clandestine abortion providers, thousands of women in Mexico have been lucky enough to find low cost, high quality abortion services provided by medical practitioners who believe in a woman´s right to choose. For most of these women, abortion access has helped them and their families to live happier lives.

“Aborto Sin Pena” (“Abortion without shame”) is a new documentary profiling three of these women: Yojany, Berenice, and Valentina. Each of them has chosen to tell her own personal experience with abortion on camera without hiding her face or her identity. This is a radical and political act in a country where abortion is still illegal. Their stories dispel the myth of “Post-Abortion Syndrome.”

Also featured on this new DVD are:

• An interview with the Vice-President of the Mexican National Pro-Life Committee, a powerful fundamentalist organization known for its crusade against gay rights and abortion access in Mexico.
• A ten minute documentary on the political debate surrounding a new law in Mexico City which will legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. (Co-produced by canalseisdejulio.)
• An epilogue to “Aborto Sin Pena” featuring one woman´s journey to a Zapatista rebel stronghold in the Southeast Mexican State of Chiapas, where she proposes to civil society and Zapatista leaders that abortion rights be included in a new progressive national non-violent program for social change called the “Other Campaign.”

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE OR BY PHONE

$19.00 FOR HOME VIDEO USE

($100 FOR INSTITUTIONS, INCLUDING SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES, OR HEALTH CLINICS)

TO ORDER, CALL TRANSIT MEDIA:
1-800-343-5540
OR CONTACT
gringoyo@gmail.com

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC SCREENINGS AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
gringoyo@gmail.com

More to come…

Many towns in Oaxaca, both indigenous and mestizo, govern themselves through “usos y costumbres” (practices and customs) which apply an indigenous worldview to democratic practice. In towns ruled through “usos y costumbres” the mandate of a mayor or governing representative can be revoked as soon as the town decides that the leader has been delinquent in his or her governance practices. Effectively, the demand of the APPO is an assertion of the legitimacy of “usos y costumbres” and an attempt to apply the practice on a statewide level.

But the APPO of Oaxaca is not alone in its practice of indigenous rooted democracy. Communities throughout central and southern Mexico have their own “usos y costumbres.” Given the widespread evidence of fraud in the recent Presidential elections, and a general crisis of governance throughout the country, the arrival of the APPO in Mexico City this week holds special significance; it is the continuation of a long term battle of popular democracy vs. corrupt institutions. The APPO may well put into motion the beginning of the end of so-called President-elect Felipe Calderon from office…before he is even sworn in!

Check out www.narconews.com for continuously updated informtaion…