A new-born baby discovered abandoned in a plastic bag sparked a public furore, pitting the church and pro-life defenders against advocates of women’s right to choose and better sex education and support for young people.
Main image: security camera image apparently showing father holding a bag containing his new-born baby, before abandoning it in the street.
At Sunday mass on 16 February, the priest at the church of Santo Domingo in Chiapa de Corzo in southern Mexico, chose to mention a tragic event that occurred five days earlier more than 1,000 kms away. In his sermon he drew attention to the case of a young couple, the woman aged 18, the man 21, who decided to abandon a new-born baby in a plastic bag in the street, in Tultitlán, Mexico State, after a failed attempt at abortion.
Their action was caught on security cameras in the street and shared widely on social media and other publications. The baby, its umbilical cord and placenta still attached, was rescued by neighbours and the police and taken to hospital with a specialist neonatal unit while the authorities established who would look after the child.
The young parents handed themselves in to the police, were arrested and taken into custody, where they face charges of attempted murder.
The case swiftly became a public sensation. Some people strongly condemned the young couple, while others defended them, arguing that they had acted out of fear and ignorance.
The sermon of the priest in Chiapas, echoing the views of the Archdiocese of Mexico, centred on living according to God’s commandments, with an absolute rejection of abortion. ‘It is unacceptable that some people take advantage of the case of the baby abandoned in a plastic bag in the street to argue that abortion should be approved,’ stated the Archdiocese in an editorial published on 15 February in its fortnightly journal.
‘There are various awkward facts that cannot be swept under the carpet, especially when it is argued that in order to avoid a situation such as this one, abortion should be legitimized. We want to make it clear: “Babies are not to blame”’, stated the Archdiocese.
Among the problems listed by the Archdiocese is that abortion is a practice involving a death, and ‘This case especially, as well as being an act of cruelty, involves a clearly illegal act, as abortion was attempted late in pregnancy. The law protects the developing human life as the pregnancy progresses.’
The statement adds that it was fear and ignorance which led these young people to take such a decision, faced by a society which is less and less supportive. Moreover they apparently did not know that there are ‘means to offer this baby a life, including the opportunity to be adopted, if all else fails’.
Various NGOs and activists who defend a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body argue that the young people were not ready to be parents and should not be treated as criminals.
Posts on social media reflect the polarization of opinion about this matter: on the one hand indignant condemnation, on the other the view that the couple should from the outset have had access to free and safe abortion.
‘Putting them in prison will solve nothing. They acted out of fear. They are not monsters, just immature young people in the midst of a terrible emotional crisis’, wrote someone on Facebook. ‘That is why we women should have the free right to make decisions about our bodies, and public hospitals should be able to provide safe, legal and free abortion, backed by sex education campaigns’, stated another post. ‘We do not want a society where young people are afraid, young people lack basic information.’
Even Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum commented on the case, saying that while a crime had been committed, it was caused by factors which needed urgent attention to avoid a repetition of such a tragedy. ‘Fortunately this kind of thing does not happen often. It was an isolated case, linked to the way this family lived, their lack of information, lack of communication and perhaps the lack of proper support.’
In Mexico, despite the fact that abortion was decriminalized in the whole country by the Supreme Court in 2023, there are 10 (out of 32) states (Campeche, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Durango and Sonora) where abortion remains prohibited except in exceptional cases such as rape and danger to the mother’s life.
