Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor: Joana Mihajlovska, Agency: Newsflash
This feminist has sparked a debate on legal abortions in Mexico after she posted a video giving detailed instructions on how women can perform an abortion on themselves at home.
Mexican lawyer and feminist Estefania Veloz posted the video on her TikTok account where she explained how to use a medicine called misoprostol to self-induce an abortion at home.
The medicine is commonly sold under the brand name Cytotec and its use is recommended in the guide on the medical treatment of abortions by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Veloz did not speak during her video, but pointed at word clouds that appeared around her detailing the instructions a woman should follow if they have been pregnant for 12 weeks or less and want to try the home procedure.
She also gave information on what they can expect and what indications to look for to ensure that the procedure was carried out successfully.
She ended with a message that read: “Legal, safe and free abortion.”
The video received wildly mixed reviews with some netizens praising Veloz for disseminating the information while others were very critical, believing she was endangering people’s lives.
Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, 65, criticised the video saying: “This video definitely cannot stand, Estefania Veloz.”
Netizen ‘Doangela1’ wrote: “Can you imagine this video in the hands of teen girls without the proper medical attention?”
However, Veloz has not backed down and issued a statement on social media on 7th December.
She said: “The door to speak about abortion and to dismantle the anti-rights conservative myths has been opened. The masks of pro-death millionaires have fallen. Let’s not let the door close on ourselves friends, let’s keep disrupting.”
General Secretary of the political party National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), Minerva Citlalli Hernandez Mora, 30, also made a statement supporting Veloz.
She said: “Intolerance and low levels of debate must end. Plurality of thoughts and diversity in people is our social richness.”
According to local reports, women are allowed to have legal abortions in the capital Mexico City and in the city of Oaxaca located in the state of the same name. In the rest of Mexico, only rape victims are offered access to the procedure.
Veloz also works as a television presenter and commentator for a show on the Mexican broadcasting network ‘Canal Once’.
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