(El Paso) When she was 16, Diana Villanueva became pregnant after being raped, then the man — her boyfriend — forced her to have an abortion. When she remembers the day that haunted her for decades, this devout Catholic remembers how difficult it was to act against her will.
Posted at 9:17 a.m.
In front of the place where she had an abortion, she was not greeted by activists haranguing her or begging her to turn back, as is often the case in front of these specialized clinics.
But looking back, she regrets they weren’t there. “I was afraid that someone would see me because my mother was very involved in the church and I was afraid that someone from the church would be there,” she told AFP.
“I was hoping nobody was there, but at the same time, I wish someone was there, because that might have given me the courage to say ‘I don’t want to do it’.”
Mme Villanueva, 53, is from El Paso, Texas. Now a mother of three, she coordinates the local branch of a spiritual retreat for women who, like her, regret their abortion.
PHOTO ROBYN BECK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Diana Villanueva
Conceived by psychologist Theresa Burke and present in dozens of countries, “Rachel’s Vineyard” is based on the Scriptures and describes itself as helping to “rebuild and heal the hearts broken by abortion”.
An abortion affects you. At first you just want to get rid of the problem, so you don’t think beyond that. You want a solution.
Diana Villanueva
“But after going through that, you wonder about what you did. This is where you start to feel remorse,” she explains.
Mme Villanueva discovered “Rachel’s Vineyard” through her church and like many, her approach to abortion is heavily influenced by her religion.
“A lot of these women say ‘my body, my choice’. [Mais] it’s not your body. Your body belongs to Christ,” she argues.
“Completely forbidden”
Texas is one of the states leading the battle to restrict access to abortion. On Friday, the Supreme Court revoked its emblematic “Roe v. Wade” decision, which since 1973 had guaranteed the right of American women to have an abortion, and left states the choice of whether or not to ban abortions.
In El Paso, the hometown of Mme Villanueva, there are no more abortion clinics. But she finds herself on the front line in the fight, because she is a neighbor of New Mexico, where abortion is still legal.
On the other side of the border is the town of San Teresa, where women wishing to have an abortion can go. But Texas law says anyone who helps a woman have an abortion — even the driver of an Uber vehicle that would take her to the clinic — can be held liable.
Mark Cavaliere, director of the Southwest Coalition for Life, which develops campaigns and programs against abortion, defends such measures.
“It is those who carry out these operations who commit acts of violence against women and children,” he says. This father of five thinks Roe vs. Wade was harmful to women.
The ruling “put pressure on women to feel compelled to alter, suppress and destroy normal, healthy bodily functions in order to meet definitions of success that are actually based on male norms. “, he says.
His organization offers, among other things, free ultrasounds in a mobile clinic.
The vehicle sometimes parks in front of a clinic in Santa Teresa in an attempt to convince women seeking abortions to continue with their pregnancies. Last weekend, dozens of people gathered to raise funds for this mobile clinic in El Paso.
A baby race was organized to see which of two small children could walk the fastest on all fours. Jazzmin Hernandez, a 32-year-old teacher, smiled as she watched them. For her, unlike the majority of Americans according to the polls, there is no gray area.
“How the baby is conceived doesn’t matter. There is no justification for ending a child’s life,” she said. “I think Texas is leading the way, and I hope other states will follow and have abortion completely banned.”