Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told Face the Nation on Sunday that court-ordered bans on abortion will lead to a national ban.
Lujan Grisham spoke to Margaret Brennan, the moderator on CBS News’ Face the Nation, on Sunday about mifepristone, the abortion medication that is now at the center of a legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
Legal experts have said that abortion medication will remain legal in New Mexico because of a separate court case in the state of Washington. There are 33 states that could be affected if the Supreme Court rules in agreement with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ to require the Federal Drug Administration to return to its 2016 restrictions on the drug.
Lujan Grisham also called stockpiling mifepristone, which some safe-haven abortion states have announced, instead of fully protecting reproductive rights as “minimizing the work we have to do to make sure that women and families are fully protected.” She also said that “we are going to make sure that medication abortion is available in our state.”
Lujan Grisham highlighted the recent reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare bills she signed this year. One protects providers and patients from out-of-state efforts to obtain information to pursue civil or criminal action in other states where abortion is banned. The other piece of legislation prohibits public bodies from discriminating against reproductive or gender-affirming care.
Brennan also questioned Lujan Grisham about the fact that New Mexico does not ban abortions for later gestation.
“New Mexico’s position, and mine, is that we should not be interfering with a woman’s right, medical situation and her decision about that life-threatening potential circumstance. We shouldn’t be doing that,” Lujan Grisham said.