Vida y Familia (VIFAC)

Heartbeat International Lists VIFAC’s Oaxaca Location As An Affiliate Offering Maternity Home Services.

[Heartbeat International, accessed 12/18/22]

VIFAC Also Markets Itself As A “Maternity Home.” “Vifac, a nearby maternity home that houses women who have been convinced not to abort. Both IRMA and Vifac count themselves as part of a network of anti-abortion groups in Mexico, along with a proliferating number of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) that are adopting the same ostensibly women-centered focus that has marked the modern US anti-abortion movement.” [Legal Monitor Worldwide, 8/30/13]

VIFAC’s Tactics Include Mobile Modules, Intimidation, And Ultrasounds. “Vifac has installed mobile modules outside clinics in Mexico City, where they even made videos with hidden cameras and undercover actresses requesting information on abortion, they would do an ultrasound and start telling you frightening things, that you are going to kill your baby and even those who were not pregnant were told: your baby is hiding because you want to abort it and it has already realized it.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/16/22]

VIFAC Has Worked With Chihuahua’s Ministry Of Health To Coerce Young Pregnant People, Including Rape Survivors, From Accessing Abortion Care. “In Chihuahua it also has an agreement with the Ministry of Health to channel young pregnant women in vulnerable situations, omitting, from the authority, the options to which they are entitled, such as abortion in case of having been victims of rape, established in the Mexican Official Norm 046.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

Human Rights Watch Has Found That VIFAC Obstructed The Legal Abortion Of A Pregnant 12-Year-Old Who Had Been Raped. “Public officials in some states at times expose rape victims, directly or indirectly, to antiabortion materials and organizations. “[Public prosecutors] send [the rape victim] to organizations … where they convince her to have the child,” said Amelia Ojeda, a lawyer from Yucatán who works directly with victims of violence. Ector Jaime Ramírez Barba, health minister of the state of Guanajuato, said that the public authorities routinely send rape victims to VIFAC, an organization that provides assistance for pregnant women on the condition that they do not seek to procure an abortion. “Mariana Guerrero,” a fifteen-year-old girl in Guanajuato who was raped and made pregnant by a neighbor when she was twelve, told Human Rights Watch that the public prosecutor told her that she could give birth at VIFAC. Guerrero said that no one at the public prosecutor’s office or the public hospital had told her she could have terminated the pregnancy.” [Human Rights Watch, March 2006]

In 2018, VIFAC Created The Formando Corazones Program In Private And Catholic Schools In Chihuahua. “With official support, the association Formando Corazones, with a conservative profile, promotes information on abortion in private and Catholic elementary schools in Chihuahua… Formando Corazones was created in 2018 in the city of Chihuahua by another organization, Vida y Familia Chihuahua, AC, known throughout the country as Vifac, an association labeled as anti-abortion by the Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

• Formando Corazones Was Originally Called Saber Amar, But Had A Name Change Due To Poor Media Coverage. “Vifac’s original formative program was called Saber Amar, but due to media scandals related to the parent organization it was renamed Formando Corazones.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

Formando Corzones’ Sexist Materials Falsely Claim That Abortion Is Murder, Causes Cancer, Hallucinations, And Destroys Lives. “With official support, the association Formando Corazones, with a conservative profile, promotes information on abortion in private and Catholic elementary schools in Chihuahua, claiming that it causes breast cancer, existential crisis and hallucinations, in addition to using terms such as “murderous women”, “destroyed lives” and “danger”. In addition, this organization has “sex education” publications full of stereotypes, such as that girls are submissive and quiet, that they should never think about themselves, while boys should be bold, strong, brave and responsible.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

Former VIFAC Chihuahua Director Beatriz Elvira Amaya Estrada Runs The Program. “The former director of Vifac Chihuahua, Beatriz Elvira Amaya Estrada, currently presides Formando Corazones.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

María Guadalupe “Marilú” Mariscal de Vilchis (Her maiden name was María Guadalupe Mariscal Toroella) is the founding president of VIFAC. She is trained as a nurse; her publicly used biography also says she has received training as a family counselor, however, the programs mentioned as a part of this training were at a business school (IPADE in Mexico City) and an honorary doctorate degree. Under her leadership, VIFAC has expanded across 26 Mexican states and Brownsville, Texas. She spoke at the World Congress of Family’s Congreso Mundial de las Familias in Mexico in September and October of 2022. Unable to have biological children herself, Mariscal adopted her own children. Throughout her career, she has advocated for adoption laws in Mexico, the rehabilitation of “moral” education, and alternatives to abortion.

Claudia Krauss is the Executive Director of VIFAC’s Life & Family Pregnancy Center in Brownsville, Texas. She is also listed as the organization’s COO on its IRS 990-N. She spoke in a video shared on Facebook by the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville describing VIFAC’s services in Texas and urging pregnant people to come to them for options other than abortion, and to choose life, because, as she says, VIFAC can offer them all of the support that they need to do so.

Heartbeat International spreads its extremist anti-abortion propaganda through an international network of crisis pregnancy centers that target vulnerable women using evangelical Christian rhetoric and medical misinformation. Heartbeat International lobbies the U.S. federal government on behalf of crisis pregnancy centers, promotes the medically unsound abortion pill reversal theory, and has growing influence in Latin America through its partnership with Centro De Ayuda Para La Mujer Latinoamericana (CAM). CAM, which originated in Mexico, runs Christian anti-abortion centers across Latin America with support from Heartbeat International. VIFAC is affiliated with Heartbeat International; Heartbeat lists VIFAC’s Oaxaca location as an affiliate offering maternity home services.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is one of the most influential right-wing groups in the United States and abroad. ADF legally launders discrimination behind the rhetoric of “religious freedom” to restrict the rights of marginalized people — causing it to be classified as a hate group. ADF enjoys influence in international fora and sponsors conferences gathering anti-rights, far-right wing politicians to advance their extreme ideological agenda, including in Mexico City. ADF lawyers have also argued against abortion access at the Mexican Supreme Court; the organization also funds a scholarship to train anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQIA+ lawyers in partnership with a Mexican University. While working for ADF, Neydy Casillas put on a 2013 Commission on the Status of Women side event entitled “Policy-Making to Reduce Maternal Mortality: A Holistic Approach to Maternal Care” that was co-sponsored by VIFAC, along with Personhood USA,  Construye, and Mujer para la Mujer. In a statement for the panel, Casillas said, “Policies that ensure women will have access to this information are the most effective way to reduce maternal mortality. Through education, lives will be saved. But with every abortion, mortality increases, and an act of violence is inflicted on an innocent child.”

World Congress of Families (WCF), formed in 1997, is a U.S.-based organization that maintains an international coalition to promote extremist tenets of the Christian far right. It was created by and is coordinated by the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society.  WCF opposes marriage equality, abortion, and pornography and promotes the so-called “natural family doctrine” that has been used to curtail reproductive and LGBTQIA+ rights across the world.  WCF has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. From September 30 to October 2, 2022, WCF held its Congreso Mundial de las Familias convening in Mexico. VIFAC Founding President Marilú Mariscal was a speaker.

VIFAC Reportedly Has Strong Ties With The Mexican Prosecutor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office. “According to Susana Vallina, in charge of Vifac’s communications department, between 90% and 92% of women end up not giving their baby up for adoption, keeping it instead. However, she acknowledged that there is no follow-up for these women once their pregnancy is over, since their mission is only to support pregnant women. The organization boasts strong collaborative ties with the Prosecutor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office in the State of Mexico, as well as with those who are on the list of pre-approved parents looking to adopt.” [International Women’s Media Foundation, El País, 10/24/21]

In June 2019, Marascal Met With Secretaría de Desarrollo Social estatal (Sedesem), Eric Sevilla Montes, To Accept A Grant Directed For VIFAC By Governor Alfredo del Mazo Maza

[Repurcusión Pública, 2019]

Social Development Secretariat Montes Presented The Grant For VIFAC, Which Governor Mazo Maza Had Supported By Executive Power. “Naucalpan, State of Mexico, June 26, 2019. Vida y Familia México, Private Assistance Institution, IAP, will be supported with economic resources to continue housing, food, training and counseling for pregnant women in vulnerable conditions, as well as to strengthen its adoption program, said the head of the state Social Development Secretariat (Sedesem), Eric Sevilla Montes de Oca, in the framework of the participation agreement signed between this institution and Sedesem. Sevilla Montes de Oca specified that Governor Alfredo del Mazo Maza had supported the grant by Executive Power; in this regard, he said, ‘We help the institution with donations, consultancies, resources for their rehabilitation and equipment, and with coordination mechanisms that facilitate their work.’” [Translated from Spanish, Repurcusión Pública, 2019]

VIFAC Is Associated With The State Governments Of Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Morelos, Nuevo León and Yucatán. “Vifac…is associated with the governments of at least six states – Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Morelos, Nuevo León and Yucatán – from which it has received public resources through the now defunct National Institute for Social Development (Indesol) and the Ministry of Social Development, DIFs and state governments.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

VIFAC Has Received Direct Government Aid From The Yucatán, Morelos, Quintana Roo, And Jalisco Governments…“According to public information available in the National Transparency Platform, during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, Vifac was granted close to 2.4 million pesos through Indesol, especially to the Yucatan and Morelos branches. While in 2019 the Instituto Aguascalentense de la Mujer granted it 295 thousand pesos for a workshop on sexual and reproductive rights of girls, boys and adolescents.” There are also agreements between Vifac and the government of Quintana Roo to “abate educational backwardness”, according to a document obtained by transparency dated July 2021. The government of Jalisco signed in June 2019 another agreement for training through the Institute of Training for Work, in addition to another collaboration agreement dated 2020 between the DIF of Zapopan and Vifac to provide pregnant women with “accompaniment and specialized support.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

…Mexican Government Aid To VIFAC At The State And Federal Levels Has Amounted To Almost 5.4 Million Pesos, Or Over $272,000 USD, Over The Last Five Years. “In sum, state and federal resources have been granted to various Vifac headquarters for at least 5 million 378 thousand 483 pesos between 2016 and 2021.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

Formando Corazones Has Received 1.4 Million Pesos From The State Of Chihuahua. “Formando Corazones, which to date and according to public documents, has received one million 441,824 pesos from the state of Chihuahua to finance the implementation of its religious program.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

Formando Corazones First Entered Into Agreement With Chihuahua’s Government In 2017. “The first official agreement between Formando Corazones and the Chihuahua government was established under the administration of Javier Corral. It was signed on November 30, 2017 by the then Secretary of Education and Sports, Pablo Cuarón Galindo, and Amaya Estrada as Vifac’s legal representative. The agreement, effective until September 7, 2021, was to implement the Formando Corazones program in basic education institutions, supposedly as a promotion of the culture of peace, as well as to raise self-esteem and the management of students’ emotions, with the alleged authorization of the Directorate of Basic Education and the Unit for Gender Equality.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

• Transparency Requests Showed That The Program Was Implemented In At Least 14 Public Schools In The First Year Of The Agreement. “In the response to a September 2018 transparency request, the state Ministry of Education and Sports claims that the program had already been implemented in 14 elementary schools of the state subsystem.” 

Formando Corazones Secured Additional Government Grants From The Chihuahua Government In 2019, 2020, and 2021. “Formando Corazones and the Chihuahua Municipal DIF, under the administration of then-Mayor Maru Campos, established a second agreement in March 2019 for the municipality to grant 45 thousand pesos for the payment of basic services such as water, electricity and rent for the association. The latter also received an extraordinary subsidy of 240 thousand pesos to implement its program in three elementary schools located ‘in the poverty polygons of the city of Chihuahua’ and the expenses of a home for pregnant women in vulnerable situations. From that year on, Formando Corazones appears in the list of governmental suppliers and contractors. Through a direct award contract, the Colegio de Bachilleres, directed by María Teresa Ortuño, gave 656,824 pesos to the civil association to implement the religious program for parents and students during the school year from June to December of the same year. In the annexes presented, it was planned to give these courses to 14,482 students and 75,630 parents from all over the state. In March 2020, another economic agreement is established in which the DIF delivers 300 thousand pesos for a new project called ‘Accompaniment in the sexual life of the children for the prevention of teenage pregnancy’. And in June 2021 they signed another for 200 thousand pesos, this time to ‘Provide family interaction tools to children, adolescents, caregivers and parents of the City of Chihuahua that allow them to identify risk factors derived from confinement’.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

PAN Congressman Miguel Latorre Was Reportedly Instrumental In Formando Corazones Securing These Government Grants. “In order for Formando Corazones to receive public resources, Maru Campos promoted through one of her allies, PAN congressman Miguel Latorre, an exhortation in the local Congress to grant public money to projects that would address the family project through educational programs.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

Formando Corzones’ Materials Also List The Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense and the Fundación Gonzalo Río Arronte As Sponsors. “and the Fundación del Empresariado Chihuahuense and the Fundación Gonzalo Río Arronte appear as sponsors [of VIFAC] in the index of the books.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 2/6/22]

VIFAC Has Held ECOSOC Consultative Status Since At Least 2009

“Vida Y Familia De Guadalajara (2009)” Is Included On The “List Of Non-Governmental Organizations In Consultative Status With The Economic And Social Council As At 1 September 2019.” [csonet.org, 2019, p. 119] 

VIFAC Submitted A 2016 “Pro-Family” Statement To ECOSOC With Other Anti-Abortion Organizations Including Alliance Defending Freedom Which Referred  To VIFAC As An NGO With Consultative Status within ECOSOC. “Statement submitted by Alliance Defending Freedom, Mision Mujer AC, Mujer para la Mujer A.C., Observatorio Regional para la Mujer de América Latina y el Caribe AC, Red Mujeres, Desarrollo, Justicia Y Paz AC and Vida y Familia de Guadalajara A.C., non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council*” [ECOSOC, 2016]

VIFAC Has Submitted Anti-Abortion, “Pro-Family” Statements For The Commission On The Status Of Women (CSW)

VIFAC Submitted A 2011 CSW Statement With Misión Mujer Seemingly Rationalizing Gender-Based Violence As A Result Of A “Masculinity Crisis” Rooted In Men No Longer Being Heads Of Households. “However, the issue of gender equity must not be approached from a single point of view, but rather from both the male and female perspective. It is therefore important to promote an integrated gender perspective in the home and at school, one which obviously includes issues that affect women, as well as the problems men face. Men also suffer as a result of the stereotypical acts that define ‘what it means to be a man’, such as the glorification of violence, criminal behaviour, unsafe sexual practices, substance abuse and even suicide. The consequences of the masculinity crisis are acute and have a negative impact on women and therefore must be addressed. 6. The masculinity crisis has been exacerbated by the market decline, unemployment and the economic crisis. These have decreased the quality of life of families and undermined men’s self-esteem and authority as the once-recognized head of the family. Consequently, men in some circumstances resort to committing violence against women and children as a means of showing that they can still have control over others, repeating the stereotype of what they conceive of as ‘being a real man’. Such roots of gender-based violence must be acknowledged.” [ECOSOC, 2011]

VIFAC Submitted A 2014 Statement Advocating For CSW To Focus Its Energy Away From “Safe Abortion” And Toward “Maternal Mortality”, Citing “Abortion-Related Deaths” In Mexico. “[W]e are concerned that some agencies and non-governmental organizations at the United Nations are more interested in promoting abortion than addressing the vast majority of preventable causes of maternal mortality. We believe that this emphasis on abortion is inappropriate and particularly inapplicable to Mexico’s situation. … Indeed, a substantial part of the maternal deaths resulting from induced abortion in Mexico may be related to violence against pregnant women, which we are concerned to see has become more common. It must be noted that these abortion-related deaths cannot be avoided by promoting changes in abortion legislation … Because calls for “safe abortion” do nothing to help women who want to bring their children safely into the world, Vida y Familia de Guadalajara encourages the Commission to focus its energy on the preventable causes of maternal mortality that constitute the vast majority of maternal deaths worldwide.” [ECOSOC, 2013]

VIFAC Has Faced Accusations Of Trafficking Babies From Lower-Income Pregnant People To Higher-Income, Foreign Families

VIFAC Has Been Subject To Allegations That It Coerces Lower-Income Pregnant People To Give Babies Up For Adoption And Traffick Said Babies To Economically Advantaged Families. “However, for years there have been allegations that Vifac has been involved in the theft of babies to sell them to families with better economic conditions. In 2013, GIRE denounced that Vifac in San Luis Potosí offered women with unwanted pregnancies to go to their organization to place them with families who wanted to adopt them. It also happened that in Jalisco, Vifac was involved in the trafficking of children to foreign families and that they served low-income women with a basic level of education.” [CE Noticias Financieras English, 9/1/21]

VIFAC Was Accused Of Involvement With Trafficking Babies From Colima And Jalisco To Irish Families

Along With SOS Bambions, VIFAC Was Accused Of Swindling Low-Income Mothers As A Part Of A Trafficking Scheme. “Since 2006 the delegation of the PGR in the state of Colima initiated a preliminary investigation in relation to eight adoptions that were carried out in favor of Irish couples, in which, according to the delegate Tomás Coronado Olmos, ‘the two main organizations involved in these adoptions were: SOS Bambinos and Vifac.’ According to the investigations, the people involved contacted pregnant women, with limited resources, in order to give them financial support so that, after their daughters or sons were born, they could take photographs for publicity purposes. Subsequently, the babies were delivered to couples of Irish origin, through an adoption process that took place in Colima. ‘The Foundation for Stolen and Disappeared Children (FIND), which has denounced for decades the anomalies and illegalities surrounding the management of institutionalized children in Jalisco, filed a criminal complaint with the PGR and the Colima State Attorney General’s Office. In said complaint, 12 Irish couples and public officials from different federal and state agencies are pointed out for acts of action and omission for having endorsed the adoption procedures without having complied with the legal procedures. The agreement proposal also refers to the fact that a lawyer accused of being the leader of a gang of trafficking in minors – which processed adoptions of children in Jalisco and Colima – accused a social worker from Vifac of being the liaison with the biological mothers who allegedly sold their sons and daughters.” [Translated from Spanish, El Proceso, 3/14/18]

Mexican Senators Have Asked The Attorney General’s Office For Results Of Investigations Into The Matter. “PRD senator Angélica de la Peña Gómez proposed that the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) report on the progress in the investigations of the case of the international network of trafficking of minors that operated in the states of Jalisco, Colima and Aguascalientes, offering to girls and boys for adoption to foreign couples. Through a point of agreement initiative, the federal legislator proposed that the Senate urge the agency to submit a report on that case that was forwarded to the Commission on the Rights of Children and Adolescents for its ruling. The matter was taken up by De la Peña Gómez to argue her rejection of granting public resources to Vida y Familia A.C. (Vifac), an anti-abortion organization linked to the Catholic Church, allegedly involved in the alleged international trafficking of minors through adoption… After 12 years of the initiation of the preliminary investigation, the PGR has not known the findings of these investigations, for which reason Senator Angélica de la Peña proposed that the Senate ask the institution for a report on the results.” [Translated from Spanish, El Proceso, 3/14/18]

Mexican Abortion Rights Group Marea Verde México Tweeted That VIFAC “Tricks Women To Force Them To Give Birth” Then “Steals Babies To Sell Them To Rich Families.”

[Marea Verde México Tweet, 8/30/21]

In 2019, Mexico Passed A Law That Prohibits Any Civil Society Organization From Administering Adoptions, Raising Questions About VIFAC’s Donations From Families… “In 2019, Mexico passed a reform to the General Law on the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents, which explicitly prohibits any civil society organization from giving babies up for adoption. This implies that neither state nor municipal governments have the power to allow civil organizations to carry out adoption processes. In a report published a few years ago, the Mexican reporter Thelma Gómez Durán pointed out that Vifac received funds from both private institutions and highly influential families in the country.” [Translated from Spanish, El País, 10/23/21]

…Given Previous Reports Of Its Operations Collecting Money From Families Seeking To Adopt. “The 20 couples listen to an explanation of how Vifac works: the organization has shelters to accommodate ‘pregnant women in distress.’ There they are given training workshops and medical care until the baby is born. If any of them wants to give it up for adoption, Vifac takes care of the paperwork. Couples are warned that the adoption process can take up to two years, sometimes longer, because few women decide to give their children up for adoption and the demand for babies is great. While that happens, couples will have to take courses on adoption, parenting, family and religion. They will have to gather various documents. In addition, during the time that the process lasts, they will contribute to Vifac around two thousand pesos per month for ‘administrative expenses.’ This amount does not include the cost of the courses or the socioeconomic and psychological studies that must be carried out at Vifac. Neither does it contemplate the expenses of the trials of loss of parental authority and adoption that must also be paid.” [Translated from Spanish, La Malafe, Report by GIRE and El Centro Horizontal, 6/18/18]

VIFAC does not appear to have a 501c4 arm.

VIFAC Has Been Incorporated In Texas Since 2016.

[Guidestar, accessed 12/14/22]

VIFAC Has Not Submitted A Full Form 990 To The IRS As It Seemingly Qualifies For a Form 990-N Instead (For Organizations With A Revenue Less Than $50,000)

[IRS Non-profit Search, accessed 12/14/22]

VIFAC Publicly Shares Their Donors, Who Include Home Depot And A Citigroup Subsidiary

VIFAC Lists Its Corporate Donors, Including Home Depot And Citibanamex (A Citigroup Subsidiary in Mexico) On Its Website.

[VIFAC.org, accessed 12/14/22]