Abortion Access

New Mexico locales pass more anti-abortion ordinances than other pro-abortion states

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Despite abortion in New Mexico remaining legal and recent legislation to further protect care, municipalities and counties have passed more anti-abortion ordinances than other states that are considered pro-abortion. Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, told NM Political Report that attempts to pass similar ordinances have occurred in other states but no other state has had as many locales pass anti-abortion ordinances as New Mexico that are pro-abortion. Her group monitors anti-abortion ordinances passed at the local level around the U.S.

The town of Edgewood is the latest of six locales in New Mexico that have passed anti-abortion ordinances. The city council passed the ordinance at the end of an eight-hour public meeting last month. When asked if she thought New Mexico has become the new battleground for abortion rights, Miller said that “might be giving these things too much credence.”

“A very small proportion of these kinds of extreme measures are up against an overwhelming degree of support and elected officials are taking affirmative steps at the state level to not only safeguard access but also to expand it,” she said.

Abortion Access
Abortion rights protestors rally in Washington D.C.

Whole Women’s Health opens clinic in Albuquerque, calls providing abortion care in the U.S. ‘human rights work’

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In an unprecedented time in the reproductive healthcare landscape, one new Albuquerque abortion provider called providing abortions in the U.S. human rights work. Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and chief executive officer for Whole Women’s Health, talked to NM Political Report at length about what it took to relocate from Texas, where the nonprofit organization operated clinics in four cities, to Albuquerque last month. 

Whole Women’s Health, which previously ran clinics in the Texas cities of Austin, Fort Worth, McAllen and McKinney, opened its first clinic in Albuquerque near the airport on March 23. 

Whole Women’s Health is largely associated with Texas because it launched a lawsuit in 2013 to litigate a state TRAP [Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers] law requiring abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. 

In 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court heard Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt and opined that the state restriction was medically unnecessary and ruled in favor of Whole Women’s Health. In addition to Texas, the provider also operates clinics in Virginia, Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana and now, for the first time, New Mexico. Whole Women’s Health is part of a growing trend of abortion providers opening or relocating to New Mexico, which is now considered a safe haven state for abortion rights. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s pledge of $10 million to help open a full-spectrum reproductive healthcare clinic in Las Cruces was part of the capital outlay bill, in this past legislative session. 

But the road was long to get here, Hagstrom Miller said. 

“It’s been a really challenging year,” she said.“We have clinics or programs in six states so we’re not only in Texas.

Abortion Access

Abortion drug mifepristone remains legal in New Mexico but officials seek more clarification

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Two separate lawsuits and decisions issued on the same day last week regarding the Federal Drug Administration and its approval and rules around the abortion medication mifepristone has caused confusion over the drug’s legality in the day since then, but a federal district judge in Washington state clarified the drug’s status as legal in New Mexico late on Thursday. Washington state federal district Judge Thomas Rice clarified that his decision last week to further lift FDA regulations on mifepristone will remain in effect in those 18 jurisdictions, including New Mexico, regardless of the conflicting decision released by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday night. Rice issued his clarification that his decision holds true for the 17 states and the District of Columbia less than 24 hours after the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, determined that the FDA must return to how it regulated mifepristone prior to 2016. The attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia sued the FDA earlier this year asking the agency to lift its remaining restrictions on the abortion medication mifepristone. Rice, in eastern Washington, ruled last Friday in favor of the plaintiffs but his ruling came on the same day as Texas federal district Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s rule against the FDA restricting mifepristone.

Abortion Access

Guv signs capital outlay bill, which includes $10 million pledge for reproductive clinic in Las Cruces

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The day before the deadline to sign bills, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the capital outlay bill, which includes a $10 million pledge to build a full-spectrum reproductive health clinic in Las Cruces. HB 505 contains $1.2 billion worth of projects to be built across the state. Among those is Lujan Grisham’s $10 million pledge to build a full-spectrum reproductive health care clinic in Las Cruces. Lujan Grisham announced the pledge last summer, a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade when it ruled against a Mississippi abortion clinic that provided abortions up to 16 weeks. Several organizations have partnered to begin discussions on the future clinic.

Abortion Access

Guv signs bill protecting abortion providers

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Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation that protects providers and patients from out-of-state efforts to criminalize or penalize through civil court the right to abortion in New Mexico. SB 13, Reproductive Health Provider Protections, codifies into law Lujan Grisham’s executive order announced last summer, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade through its Dobbs decision. It also protects those providing and seeking gender-affirming care. The new law, sponsored by state Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, carries penalties of $10,000 for a violation. It prohibits state agencies from participating in an out-of-state effort to seek information about or from abortion or gender-affirming care providers.

Abortion Access

Legislature approved two major reproductive, gender-affirming care bills

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The Legislature passed two major reproductive rights bills this legislative session, one of which went to the governor’s desk in the final days. Both bills increase protections in the state for both reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care. As of February 1, 2023, there are 17 states that have put some protections in place for abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham already signed HB 7, the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Healthcare Act, into law. It prohibits public bodies from discriminating against individuals seeking reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare. 

There are two towns, Clovis and Hobbs, and two counties, Lincoln and Roosevelt, that have passed ordinances that have placed barriers to clinics that provide abortions from obtaining a business license.

Abortion Access

Reproductive justice leader was Heinrich’s guest at the State of the Union

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Sen. Martin Heinrich’s guest for President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address held Tuesday evening during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol building was a reproductive justice leader in New Mexico. Heinrich invited Charlene Bencomo, a Chicana New Mexican and executive director of Las Cruces-based Bold Futures, to be his special guest at the State of the Union address. Heinrich said through a news release that he chose Bencomo “in part to recognize her advocacy and deep commitment in New Mexico to build communities where women, people and families can live and thrive with respect and dignity, but also to underscore the work that still lies ahead.”

“Charlene is a lifelong New Mexican and a driving force for change. She uses her work and life experiences to educate, inspire, and inform others. Her leadership has been central to reproductive rights advancements in our state and across the country.

Health

New full-spectrum reproductive health care clinic in Las Cruces still in planning stages 

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A new full-spectrum reproductive health clinic in Las Cruces is still, at least, a few years from becoming a reality, said Bold Futures Executive Director Charlene Bencomo. Within a few months of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade through its Dobbs decision in late June, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a second reproductive executive order, pledging $10 million toward a reproductive health care clinic in Doña Ana County.  The pledge will be in the capital outlay bill in the 2023 Legislative session, Lujan Grisham’s Press Secretary Nora Meyers Sackett, told NM Political Report. 

Bencomo said the clinic will be in Las Cruces and that it is still in the “fundraising stage.” She said that, in part, because the goal is for the clinic to be innovative in challenging health care norms, it’s hard to say at this point how long it will be before the clinic will be fully operational. She said the partners, of which Bold Futures is one, who are behind the clinic want to “leave behind what’s not working in the healthcare system and build something new.”

The project has formed an advisory board made up of 13 members. A group of individuals interested in the project, including Bencomo, Adriann Barboa, representing Strong Families New Mexico, Dr. Eve Espey, representing the University of New Mexico Health and Sciences Center, Adrienne Mansanares, executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and Gina Deblassie, health policy advisor for Lujan Grisham, gathered last week to discuss the project publicly. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains told NM Political Report in an email that it is “working closely with the local partners in Las Cruces to envision and establish this health center, and we plan to be involved in a meaningful way now and in the future.”

The University of New Mexico said to NM Political Report in an email that UNM Health and Health Sciences is one of the entities collaborating on the clinic.

Abortion Access
Abortion rights protestors rally in Washington D.C.

2022 Top Stories #1: Dobbs decision

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Note: Every year, we count down the top ten stories of the year, as voted on by NM Political Report staffers. See our entire countdown of 2022 top stories, to date, here

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June, marking a significant shift in decades of judicial decision-making as well as creating what many called a public health emergency. The court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned nearly 50 years of precedent. The court said in its 6-3  opinion that it thought the decision should go back to the states to decide. The outcome of the decision has led to 44 states to ban or restrict abortion care in 2022, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.

News

Biden signs Respect for Marriage Act into law

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Amid much fanfare, President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law at the White House on Tuesday. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill last week by 258 to 169. The bill passed the U.S. Senate the week prior by 61 to 36 votes. The bill repeals the 1995 Defense of Marriage Act, which stated that marriage is solely between a man and a woman and denied federal benefits to same sex couples. Related: Respect for Marriage Act passes Congress: What it means for New Mexicans

The new law protects same-sex and interracial marriages by recognizing those marriages federally.