New Mexico governor overturns abortion ban

SANTA FE, NM (AP) — The governor of New Mexico on Thursday signed into law an abortion rights bill that overturns local ordinances aimed at restricting access to abortion procedures and medications.

Reproductive health clinics in New Mexico offer abortion procedures to patients from other states where termination of pregnancy is strictly prohibited, such as Texas.

The new law also aims to ensure access to medical care for gender dysphoria, which is the feeling of discomfort that may be felt by people whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned at birth.

New Mexico has one of the most liberal abortion access laws in the country, but two counties and three cities in the eastern part of the state recently passed restrictions that reflect entrenched opposition to the procedure. .

The bill signed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham overrides these local ordinances.

A companion bill passing through the New Mexico legislature will protect abortion providers as well as patients from interference, prosecution and extradition attempts from other states.

The Democratic-majority state legislature passed a measure in 2021 to repeal a dormant 1969 law that banned abortion in most cases, to ensure access to pregnancy termination after the Supreme Court last year overturned the Roe v. Wade.

The anti-abortion ordinances, passed in recent months by authorities in the cities of Hobbs, Clovis and Eunice, as well as Lea and Roosevelt counties, cite an arcane federal anti-obscenity law that prohibits sending drugs or other materials that can be used for abortion of pregnancy.

On the other hand, the State Justice Secretary, Democrat Raúl Torrez, has requested the intervention of the State Supreme Court to intervene against local anti-abortion decrees which, he assures, violate the state’s constitutional guarantees of equal protection and process.

Democratic governors from 20 states this year launched a network to boost access to abortion following the US Supreme Court’s decision to deny a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

The decision transfers regulatory authority over the procedures to state governments.

Many states have also adopted and considered outright restrictions or bans on medical treatment for transgender people. In this regard, conservative federal lawmakers have expressed concern that young people will regret it after undergoing treatment that irreversibly alters their bodies.