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The American-Mexican Abortion Network
episode • Dateline • Current Affairs • 26m
episode • Dateline • Current Affairs • 26m
At the highly policed border crossing between Mexico and California, an organised drug smuggling operation is underway.
The drug in question? Abortion pills.
Mexican activist Crystal waits up to four hours a day to bring the pills across the border, where they're mailed to thousands of American women in states where abortion – once a constitutional right – is now a crime.
"We have different strategies for getting these packets to women. But I don't want to go into details," she said.
"What I can say is we send these pills everywhere in the United States, without exception. All they have to do is contact us, and we'll send them the medicines."
Because Crystal has US citizenship, she can travel back and forth.
It's dangerous work. Abortion is legal in California. But in states where it's banned, anyone helping a woman terminate a pregnancy can face felony charges and prison time.
For Crystal, that's no deterrent. For years, she has been working with Las Libres (The Free), a feminist collective that helped Mexican women access abortion that was illegal in the country until 2023.
Led by prominent reproductive rights activist Veronica Cruz, Las Libres is now a leading supplier of abortion pills to the United States.
Veronica Cruz is the founder of Las Libres based in Guanajuato and launched in 2000. She was one of the key voices leading the charge towards decriminalisation of abortion in Mexico in 2023. Source: SBS / ARTE
"We all wanted to have a Roe v Wade, a constitutional right to abortion. We thought that it was forever, that it couldn't be changed.
"Then we realised that the anti-abortionists spent 50 years fighting for what they've now achieved."
In 2022 , a 1973 ruling that legalised abortion across America.
Since then, 14 US states have banned abortion completely and four more states made it illegal after six weeks. There are no exceptions even for rape or incest in twelve states, including Texas.
'Very scary to get pregnant in Texas'
In the state capital Houston, Nelly (not her real name) has just learned she's nearly six weeks pregnant. She wants an abortion.
"It's very scary to get pregnant in Texas because you don't know if you're going to be able to find some assistance, or what you're going to do," she said.
"It's scary because you have to do it on the low … you know, because you're breaking the law."
She has two options. The first is to go to Mexico or another US state that allows abortions.
The second and only option without having to leave the state is to have abortion pills mailed to your house. At-home kits range in price from US$60 to $500 ($92 to $765).
The only organisation that provides free kits is Las Libres. On its website, it warns customers that the use of abortion pills is illegal in Texas and recommends using a VPN (to hide computer location) and encrypted messaging.
"To make sure the person receives the pills, we've developed some logistics," said Cruz.
"It's a group of volunteers who are highly organised and who specialise in transporting the drugs."
Crystal has US citizenship so she travels back and forth across the border with abortion pills that are sold over the counter in Mexico. Source: SBS / ARTE
A second group, already in the US, is responsible for delivering the pills directly to women who have requested them. Finally, a third person guides women through the abortion process via an encrypted message chat.
Cruz says she's helped more than 20,000 women in the US access abortion since 2022.
'Don't mess with Texas'
The mobilisation of Mexican feminist groups is leading some powerful anti-abortion lobbyists in the US to push for even harsher restrictions.
"We have a phrase here in Texas: don't mess with Texas," says pastor and activist Mark Lee Dickson.
"If the abortion drug cartel in Mexico wants to test that phrase, then we'll show them how it's done."
Dickson is among the most influential anti-abortion voices in America.
He's been visiting small towns around Texas for 15 years with the same message: "Abortion is murder".
Dickson is pushing local councils in Texas to establish so-called Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn via legislation. These towns are off-limits to any woman seeking an abortion in a state where it's still legal, or across the border in Mexico.
American pastor Mark Lee Dickson is one of the most influential anti-abortion voices in the country. Source: SBS / ARTE
Dickson is now appealing to the Supreme Court to ban the sale of abortion pills across America on the pretext that they are dangerous to women's health.
His mission is to eradicate abortion.
"See, triceratops are pretty cool. But unfortunately, they've disappeared," Dickson said, holding a toy dinosaur.
"One day, like the triceratops, abortion will disappear too. Not just in America, but all over the world."
2024 election about choice
As the fight over women's bodies rages on across America, it is becoming one of the defining issues of the upcoming US presidential election in November.
"I'm very pro-choice," Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump said in a 1999 interview. "I hate the concept of abortion but still, I just believe in choice."
Véronica and her team receive up to 60 messages a day from the US. They are keeping a register of all incoming requests for abortion pills: a woman's age, the number of weeks of pregnancy, and the state she's from. Source: SBS / ARTE
Much like the unfinished border wall separating the US from Mexico — the overturning of Roe v Wade is a Trump legacy — thanks to his appointment of conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
In a speech on 26 July, Trump told a Republican rally in Florida he would "once again appoint rock-solid conservative judges who will protect religious liberty".
The Democratic Party, meanwhile, has promised to restore Roe v Wade.
Trump's likely opponent, , has publicly spoken out against abortion bans, including during a visit to a Minnesota abortion clinic earlier this year.
"These attacks against an individual's right to make decisions about their own body are outrageous and, in many instances, just plain old immoral," she said.
With more than 65 million women of childbearing age in the United States, the outcome of the upcoming presidential race could determine what choices they will have— or be denied—when it comes to their bodies and reproductive health.
