My name is Isabel Rodríguez Casanova, I am 30 years old, and I am the Project Coordinator for REDMYH.
My story of getting involved with this work begins when I was a teenager who was sexually abused by someone a little older than me. There was an abuse of power, and I found myself without information, without a support network, and facing pregnancy at the age of 14.
At that time, I wasn’t even aware that I was pregnant until, at almost six months, my family realised and took me to a gynaecologist. I remember that they wanted me to have an abortion.
Unfortunately, given how far along I was in my pregnancy they were told that it couldn’t be done, that it wasn’t legal in my country.
My son was born when I was 14, and a month after, I turned 15.
I think that being a mother at 14 is something that a girl never imagines – suddenly taking care of a doll, a toy, becomes a reality. It is something imposed on us, something we did not seek or want.
My first real understanding of abortion came when I faced another unplanned pregnancy.
I knew that having one child was enough and that I could not raise another because I was just starting to focus properly on my studies.
My first experience with abortion was clandestine – I went to a doctor to have a surgical procedure. I remember that they charged me a lot, that I had gathered all my savings and sold everything I could to pay for this abortion. They put me to sleep, and when I opened my eyes, the only thing I knew was that I was no longer pregnant.
At 19, I faced another unplanned pregnancy, and I realised that the sex education I had received had not been useful to me. I didn’t know how to avoid pregnancy since I didn’t even understand what pregnancy was, or what was happening to my body.
I remember a friend telling me that she’d heard about a medication and that she had been advised to take it in Mexico City. I remember using that medication, but it turns out I used it incorrectly. I thought I had terminated the pregnancy, but it continued, and I realised I was still pregnant at almost four months, which is when I sought further support and managed to terminate the pregnancy in the second trimester.
I think that with this second experience, unlike the first, I was aware of the reality of how to access information, medication, but also comprehensive support. However I still went through the experience alone, with my son sleeping next to me, putting my life, his life, and everything I had done up to that point at risk.
As a result of that second experience, I said ‘enough is enough’.
I asked myself, how is it possible that we don’t have access to this vital information? I began to look for safe spaces where I could talk about the issue of abortion access.
I joined REDMYH as a volunteer, when it was a new organisation with just three staff. They were all communications specialists and when I met them I was instantly inspired to work towards a career in sexuality education.
By the time I was 21 and about to finish my degree, I realised that I was the person everyone came to for information, who always carried condoms with me, and that’s how I became a sex counsellor. I believe that my life changed from the moment I entered REDMYH. A space that didn’t just let me in, but empowered me to be a leader – something I didn’t know a young person had a right to do.
Now I’ve been accompanying abortions for 10 years.
I am also the mother of a 15-year old son. I never imagined we would make it this far and that he would be such a strong accomplice in this work. Together, we recently supported one of his classmates through her abortion. She was telling him she’d missed her period and he told her about me and the work that I do. I helped this girl and about two months later, I saw her again at my son’s graduation.
On graduation day, the girl came up to me, hugged me, and said thank you very much because thanks to you, I graduated. She said, “I thought it was going to be something horrible, I thought it was going to be something I was going to regret, and I am very grateful to you because none of that happened.”
This was the same school where I myself had experienced violence, where I received no support, and was only told that I had ruined my life by getting pregnant.
So I saw myself reflected in her – I couldn’t make it to my secondary school graduation because I had a one-month-old baby. And her saying that to me made me feel like I was graduating too, right there and then, together with my son, because we had finally completed that stage. Seeing her in her graduation gown made me understand that that is exactly what the right to choose is for. So that you don’t have to put your life on hold, so that you can write your own life story, so that you can continue with what you want and so that nothing stops you.
Being an abortion companion who, through empathy and love, allows others to make decisions about their bodies, is my way of transmitting that love that I would have liked to have received myself. We created a support network that I didn’t have myself, because I needed to know that this world will give women and girls a choice.
Interview with Isabel Rodríguez Casanova, Project Coordinator at REDMYH – a SAAF grantee partner in Mexico.