Ipas is using YouTube to share real stories about abortion. The Ipas channel features videos produced in various countries, either by Ipas country offices or partner organizations to create awareness about unsafe abortion and sexual and reproductive rights around the globe. The latest addition to the page are segments from Aborto Sin Pena, a documentary produced in 2007, just before the law decriminalizing abortion in Mexico City went into effect. (The law, which was challenged, was upheld by the Mexican Supreme Court in August).

Yojany is one of the three women whose stories are told in Aborto Sin Pena. Then 29, Yojany was living with her husband and her three children in a three-room cement apartment owned by her husband's employer when her contraception failed and she got pregnant again. The $120 per month her husband made working as a gardener was barely enough to support their family at its current size.

Yojany, whose oldest son has asthma, knows well the strain of raising a family without enough money for medical care or sometimes even food.  She grew up in a family with eight brothers and sisters.

Thinking of her current children, Yojany decided to risk speaking with her doctor about abortion. "I was scared to suggest the idea, because most doctors would have kicked me out and told me, "what do you mean you want to have an abortion?", but this doctor didn't lie," Yojany said. "The first thing you should know is that it is illegal," [the doctor] said. Then she told me about the consequences."

Years later, Yojany believes she made the right decision. "What's the point of having four or five kids dying of hunger, or if we don't have any money and one of them gets sick, which has happened. That would be cruel," Yojany said.

The DVD of Aborto Sin Pena, in Spanish with English subtitles, features Yojany's story as well as the story of two other women, Berenice, a 19-year-old student, and Valentina, a woman who became pregnant after moving from a small town to Mexico City to earn money for her parents. The DVD also includes a discussion questions in Spanish. To purchase Aborto Sin Pena, contact Gregory Berger at Gringoyo@gmail.com.

Ipas'sYouTube page will be updated with interviews and other videos, including a clip of Valentina's story from Aborto Sin Pena.

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For more information, contact media@ipas.org