Breathe
By Marilú Acosta
Yesterday, February 26, 2025, Federal Deputy María Teresa Ealy Díaz presented an initiative that modifies the General Health Law (LGS), with the objective of making gynecobstetric violence visible in all sectors of society. With these modifications to the LGS, the Mexican Official Standards will have to be updated, but before that, the legislative process that this law initiative has to undergo is quite long.
A legislative initiative may have the purpose of creating, reforming, adding, repealing or abrogating constitutional or legal provisions. In this case it is to reform and add to the LGS. It goes through six stages: (1) initiative (which was presented yesterday); (2) discussion, the deputies discuss the law, for, against or whatever they want to say; (3) approval, the legislators vote (steps 2 and 3 may last a few hours, or discussions of days). Once approved by the Legislative Chamber, it is sent to the Executive. The President will approve, reject, or make observations on the law and return it to the legislators for further discussion. If approved, it goes back to the Executive for enactment. This back and forth is called (4) sanction. When the Executive enacts a law, (5) it is published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, so that those who must comply with the Law may know about it. Finally, the (6) commencement of effectiveness is determined, the moment from which the Law is applied.
In the past administration, some laws were rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation for not having complied with these six steps in a timely manner. There are "al vapor" laws, for having extraordinarily fast discussions, and others are "madruguetes", for being approved at night and some legislators are absent or not awake enough to discuss them. Having finished the legislative explanation, let's move on to this initiative.
We must understand that this issue is not a matter of gender as it is understood to protect women, violence in the health system is at the surface, no matter if you are a man, a woman or a chimera. The education and practice of medicine is shrouded in abuses, based on a patriarchal system and with the strict hierarchy that required the wars of past centuries, they leave aside science and hard data, to give all the importance to whoever has the highest position and the frying pan by the handle. It is not only normalized; in addition, the physical, mental and emotional wear and tear of health personnel is admired because standing guard and/or enduring the violence of the sector makes us heroes and heroines. Nothing could be farther from heroic, we become human piles that in survival mode make decisions in terrible conditions. And these are decisions about your health and that of your loved ones. Why is this not (or was) talked about? Because health personnel keep quiet for fear of losing their studies or their jobs, so or more abusive?
