Parnerships for Life: A Life-Saving Program

During a conference organized by Vida Humana Internacional – Human Life International’s Hispanic Division -  Lic. Jorge Serrano Limón, who at that time was the president of Mexico’s Comite Nacional Pro Vida (National Pro-Life Committee), met Laura Nelson, the founder in the U.S. of  a crisis pregnancy center for women considering abortion.

When Jorge Serrano learned about the work that Laura was doing, he invited her to the First International Pro-Life Conference in Mexico, and asked her to train members of the Comite Nacional Pro Vida, in order to create in Mexico a crisis pregnancy center as a response to the problem of abortion.

On August 15, 1989, the first “Centro de Ayuda a la Mujer” (crisis pregnancy center -CPC) was established in Mexico City.  Thanks be to God, the hard work of all the collaborators and  the help of the donors, there are now 39 CPC’s throughout the country, where 40,696 women have been helped, of which 88% have decided not to abort but to continue with their pregnancy instead. The CPC’s have ads in 4 newspapers, 3 magazines, the Yellow Pages, the City of Mexico Subway System and in pharmacies. They serve as centers for both pre and postabortion counseling, and many also counsel victims of domestic violence.

In Mexico, like in the majority of Latin American countries, abortion is not legal and  pro-lifers  are working hard to keep it so. However, many illegal abortions are done, which are due to the lack of knowledge by women, their family or friends, where it concerns their physical and psychological consequences. We are convinced that if a woman is listened to, loved and helped, she will not abort. This is the reason why we want to continue in Latin America, the work started in Mexico. Although in many countries in that continent  people work hard in defense of life, there are few or no CPC’s at all.

A network created for Latin America and The Caribbean called “Red de Ayuda a la Mujer Latinoamericana” (Aid to Women Network in Latin America) has been established, by Mexico’s Comite Nacional Pro Vida and Vida Humana Internacional. Its purpose it is to open CPC’s throughout Latin America, where they are desperately needed, as well as to provide training, materials and funding to existing ones.

The first CPC established by the Red with the help of Vida Humana  Internacional was opened in Venezuela in December of 2003. But this is only the first step in a very long and arduous journey. Because the need is so great, VHI created the “Partnerships for Life” Program, whose purpose it is to find “sister centers” (CPC’s)  in affluent countries, to help CPC’s  in the developing countries. The idea of “Partnerships for Life” is a counter effort to Planned Parenthood’s “Global Partners” program  in Latin America, which provides funding, training and materials to its “sister” organizations.

In this globalized world in which news arrive in an instant in far away countries, the culture of death is becoming more and more prevalent. Bigger, more efficient and well funded networks have been established by the culture of death organizations. Those of us who promote and defend life cannot continue to lag far behind. With God’s grace and our profesional experience, we must continue to not only fight abortion, but also give a positive alternative. More CPC’s are urgently needed throughout the Hispanic countries of this hemisphere, so that more lives and souls can be saved and so that abortion will continue to be illegal.

NOTE: Lourdes Delgado is executive director of the Aid to Women Network in Mexico City. Magaly Llaguno is executive director of Vida Humana Internacional in Miami.