Pro-Choice Drive Expands Across Border : Abortion: New group aims to further women’s family-planning rights in response to attempts at curbing options in the United States and Mexico.

Three years ago, Maria Erana of Tijuana was in the predicament of many Mexican women: She was poor, unmarried and pregnant.

She did as many others do: She crossed the border and had an abortion in San Diego. The procedure is illegal in Mexico, except in certain cases, such as after rapes or when the child is likely to be deformed.

“I wasn’t ready for a child,” explained Erana, now in training as a lawyer in Tijuana. “I wanted to rise above my economic circumstances, to complete my studies. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that while supporting a child on my own.”

On Thursday, Erana and pro-choice representatives from both sides of the border announced formation of a binational effort dedicated to protecting and furthering women’s family-planning rights in Mexico and the United States. Their planned campaign, mostly informational, is in response to what they categorize as an effort to curtail options in both nations.

“Women on both sides of the border stand together in solidarity in support of a woman’s right to make choices that are right for her life and the well-being of her family,” said a joint statement read by Shireen Miles, associate director of the Federation of Feminist Women’s Health Centers, a Los Angeles-based umbrella organization representing 20 clinics throughout the United States.

The border, Miles noted, has long been traversed by women seeking abortions. Before abortion was legalized in the United States, many U.S. women traveled to Mexico to have illegal abortions.

Now, there is fear of increased restrictions in both nations, as well as a reduction in federal funds to family planning clinics in U.S. border areas that are used by Mexican women seeking abortions.

Among other actions, the federation has planned a conference in Tijuana on Nov. 25 to discuss tactics that pro-choice advocates in both nations can use to counter anti-abortion efforts. There will also be an accelerated exchange of information and expertise between women’s groups in the two nations, the federation said. The organization’s goal is to maintain, and expand women’s access to contraception, health care and, if necessary, abortion.

Although the efforts of abortion opponents in the United States have received much attention, the women noted that a similar movement is under way in Mexico.

The Pro-Vida (“Pro-Life”) group has launched a signature-collecting initiative that seeks a constitutional amendment condemning abortion while increasing penalties for doctors who perform the procedure and women who seek it. Many Mexican physicians perform illegal abortions for a price, usually about $400 in Tijuana, the women said.

Pro-choice advocates in Mexico are concerned that several well-publicized raids on the offices of doctors who perform abortions may presage a national crackdown. Bolstering their fears are efforts by the Roman Catholic Church to do away with laws that have long restricted clerics’ influence in national affairs.

Each year, according to estimates by the pro-choice movement in Mexico, about 700,000 Mexican women undergo clandestine abortions. Thousands of others travel to the United States or elsewhere to have the procedure. At least 75,000 die annually because of illegal or self-induced abortions, the latter involving methods such as the use of herbs, coat hangers and knitting needles, according to pro-choice advocates in Mexico. They said those numbers are based on official figures from the Mexican Social Security Institute and other sources.

In Baja California, pro-choice women are particularly unnerved by the recent election of a new governor, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, from the conservative National Action Party, which has long had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. Anti-abortion activists in Baja California, the federation said, have been active lately in attempting to dissuade pregnant women from having illegal abortions in Mexico, or from entering the United States for the procedure.