At 71 years old, Araceli Herrera cannot help crying when she imagines how different her life would have been if, after being raped in her youth, she had had access to an abortion.

The woman, originally from Mexico City and who is the oldest of seven siblings, said that she worked hard to get into the university. In her home the family was very poor and her mother suffered from domestic violence by her father, who was an alcoholic.

She was the hope of the family. Her dream was to be a biologist and support her loved ones. However, an attack changed her fate.

She said that one day, her classmate told her to go to another classmate’s house to do a team project. There, there were more young people and two of them raped her.

Herrera, who was 21 years old at the time, lacked information on what to do and, out of shame, kept that brutal attack silent. Three months later she found out in the school infirmary that she was pregnant. “I told them that I wanted to have an abortion and the nurse told me that I couldn’t because there were no laws that allowed it,” she said.

Since then her life became a constant struggle.

She had to drop out of school, and her family didn’t find out she was pregnant until the baby was born. In the neighborhood, she faced ridicule from neighbors who said the baby was her college degree, and when her son asked her who his father was, she found excuses not to tell him the truth.

She asserted that she never tires of asking her son to pardon her, but has also told him that if she had had access to an abortion at that time, she would have done so.

“I got married but never had more children, I was traumatized. I’ve had a lot of therapy,” confessed Herrera.

What hurts her the most is that she had to forcefully change her career as a biologist to dedicate herself to cleaning 31 years ago after she emigrated to the United States.

“Now I think, Why does a woman have to go through that humiliation? Instead of being able to say, ‘I’m studying, I want to have an abortion,’” said Herrera, who currently resides in the state of Texas.

It was this same state, and its anti-abortion laws, that gave her the strength to begin telling her story publicly five years ago.

She said that every time she tells her story, she feels a little more is released.

This week she traveled to New York where she met with activist Michelle Xai, a representative of the Revolution Club-Los Angeles, where they began advocating for abortion on Sunday.

Xai, 29, said she started getting involved in the movement a few years ago after understanding firsthand the importance of allowing a woman to choose what to do with her body.

She said that in her case, she grew up in a very Catholic home where talking about abortion was a sin. For this reason, as a teenager she prevented a friend from having an abortion, something she regrets today.

Over time, her thinking changed, and so five years ago she even went for an abortion when she realized that an unplanned baby would completely change the course of her life.

Planning the Next Movement

Xai said they are planning protests across the country, including Los Angeles, to take place next Tuesday, March 8, International Women's Day.

They will demonstrate on that particular day to show the power of women and emphasize to politicians and the Supreme Court that if women do not have the basic right to abortion, they face not only physical violence but also emotional, social and psychological violence.

“Denying the right to abortion forces women to have children against their will,” Xai said.

She added that depriving them of this right also affects poor women, and especially women of color, with dire consequences and tightens the chains of both white supremacy and the subjugation of women.

“We are calling for mass protests, to leave classes, to leave work, to go out into the streets and say: ‘No more.’ We refuse to let the U.S. Supreme Court deny women’s humanity and decimate their rights,” Xai said .

Her hope is that the protests become so large that a change is created, as happened recently in Colombia, a country that has just decriminalized abortion.

“This was mainly because of the people who took to the streets. This is the kind of movement that we need here in this country around this issue,” said the activist.

In Los Angeles, the protest will take place in front of City Hall starting at 2:00 p.m.