My name is Lidia Castillo, I’m 47 and one of the oldest members of REDMYH.
I got pregnant when I was just 16. I have a son who is now 30 years old, so I know how complicated motherhood is when you’re not ready and when you’re not aware of everything it entails.
After I had my son, I became pregnant again, but this time I had the support of a friend.
This was around the year 2000, and abortion was still not decriminalised in Mexico City. So, I had the experience of having a clandestine abortion and it was a somewhat traumatic event.
However, it gave me the opportunity to make other decisions in my life. And I think that’s what has brought me closer to the work I’m doing to ensure that women and young people have the possibility to choose what kind of life they want to have. It shouldn’t be that someone’s life plans are compromised by enforced motherhood just because they lack access to contraception, to information or to safe abortion.
So I’ve had the opportunity to look at abortion from two perspectives: from being a 16-year-old girl who would have loved to have had the information and the possibility, but also from having it as an option when I was older.
Providing abortion support is something that fulfills me greatly.
I believe that more than just providing information, what we are offering is the possibility for girls to make their own informed and free decisions.
That is what drew me to this work, but it’s also what keeps me there. Although it’s complicated and sometimes a bit exhausting, it’s also very rewarding and fulfilling. It’s a job that allows and enables many things in people’s lives. Having had a similar experience myself, it can be very emotional to receive messages from people we’ve supported to say things like ‘I feel fine now, I went for my ultrasound and everything is fine.’ It’s not just a job, it’s something that nourishes you as a person.
I believe that there is much more openness now than when I was a teenager.
I feel some hope when I see that there is more generosity, openness and flexibility in the new generation. I believe in the freedom of all people to choose freely who to form relationships with, and whether or not to have children.
I hope that at some point everyone will see abortion for what it is – a decision and a process that anyone can decide on with the right information. The alternative of imposed motherhood is so sad – for the children who come into a world where they are not welcome, and for the women who see their life plans disrupted.
Interview with Lidia Castillo, Coordinator in Quintana Roo for SAAF grantee partner REDMYH in Mexico.