2023 Report

2023 was a transformative year for Catholics for the Right to Decide Mexico (CDD Mexico).

Making great strides, based on our religious and feminist approach, we continue advancing our political and social commitment. We imagine a just society, where all individuals can decide about their lives and bodies, according to freedom of conscience, with joy, and in harmony with our faith, spirituality, and religions free from discrimination and violence.

Through creating this report, we came to realize the many steps we have taken, the paths we have covered, the constant movement that inspires us and the recognition that, in our strides, we are not alone. As such, this report not only summarizes our activities and achievements, but also reflects our gratitude toward all those who form part and make possible CDD Mexico’s work and dreams.

Transforming with Liberating Viewpoints

A fundamental pillar of CDD Mexico’s work is to advance the voices of believers who recognize freedom of conscience and moral authority to make ethical decisions over our own lives.

During 2023, we developed and implemented communication campaigns, created innovative narratives to counter fundamentalist discourse, offered spiritual accompaniment for abortion and LGBT+ rights, and we raised awareness and generated reflection to question social norms that perpetuate prejudice.

We launched the 12th season of our animated series, Catolicadas, which contains three special episodes that contribute to the transformation of harmful norms related to gender-based violence, through progressive, intersectional theological arguments. Catolicadas was transmitted through our social media and on network television.

We implemented the campaign "¡Que el amor sea contigo! En libertad y sin culpas", based on lessons learned from the Heartwired methodology. This campaign seeks to promote bodily autonomy, with the central message that each person has the right and capacity to make informed and autonomous decisions about their own body, including decisions related to reproductive justice, abortion, and sexuality.

In collaboration with the "Fondo María de Aborto para la Justicia Social", we promoted the campaign "40 Días x Justicia Reproductiva"

We shared that love is a divine creation, promoting openness and respect toward the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions.

In addition to our campaigns, through our continuous communication and outreach strategies we inform about desired motherhood; sexual freedoms; diverse sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions; lives free from violence and the secular State and religious pluralism.

We developed and implemented pedagogical methodologies to generate training of trainers with community leaders to identify and question harmful gender norms in Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Quintana Roo.

Our Spiritual Accompaniment Group has generated a respectful space for dialogue, reflection and accompaniment for women who decide about and/or their families, and who have religious or ethical conflicts on this decision, as well as for sexual and gender diverse individuals.

Transforming with Secularism, Rights and Freedoms

With the goal of generating changes in public policies to guarantee and respect all individuals’ right to decide about their lives and bodies, in accordance with the secular State, we have promoted and carried out advocacy on sexual and reproductive rights and gender-based violence; as well as awareness raising and training processes for decision makers and public servants.

In 2023, we celebrated, with the Green Wave, the decriminalization of abortion in Aguascalientes and the Mexican Supreme Court’s sentence on abortion decriminalization at the federal level.

We offered support and technical assistance within public debates on abortion decriminalization in Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Michoacan, Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla, Jalisco, and San Luis Potosi. In addition, we offered arguments and progressive religious and ethical arguments on the secular State to local allies, while we accompanied them on other needs that arose during state-level decriminalization debates, particularly in Puebla and Michoacan.

In states where abortion had already been decriminalized, we accompanied allies in outreach efforts and demands for access to health services, particularly in Colima, Hidalgo, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Veracruz and Guerrero.

We concluded our collaboration with the Observatorio Ciudadano Nacional del Feminicidio, the Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos y Democracia, and Justicia Pro Persona, through which progress was made in monitoring the mechanisms of gender violence alerts, and support was provided in 48 cases of femicidal violence.

We have actively participated in the public debate at the federal level to provide arguments to regulate conscientious objection (CO), according to the 2021 Supreme Court decision, to ensure that CO does not hinder access to abortion services.

We worked toward advances in other states, like Michoacan and Sonora, where we provided decision makers with arguments on CO, secular ethics, and public service.

We developed awareness raising and training programs with health personnel to analyze CO and reduce criminalization and criminal charges against women and others who abort. In addition, we provided information on secular public ethics and training in Baja California Sur, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Mexico City, Puebla, and Quintana Roo and with the National Network of Midwives.

Transforming from a Social Fabric of Diverse Networks with a Common Goal

During 2023, we have woven ties with various networks and collective groups in favor of individuals’ right to decide about their lives and bodies. Under this pillar, we have constructed and consolidated strategic alliances with various actors; we have participated in social mobilization efforts toward collective demands and public visibility; we have developed and provided tools as well as resources to strengthen allies; and we have promoted dialogue, reflection, and agreements for the construction of a common agenda.

Our resources, by issue:

Thank you!

We conclude another year filled with challenges and achievements.

Thank you to CDD Mexico’s team for your dedication and commitment.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our cause, to our Board of Directors, and to all the allied organizations and collectives. Your support and confidence are the strength behind our actions.

With gratitude and hope, we look toward a feminist future, confident in that, together, from our struggle and from the recognition of our rights, we will continue transforming our reality.