Southern New Mexico county says abortion clinics not welcome

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A area government board in southern New Mexico approved a information Thursday declaring that abortion clinics are not welcome in politically conservative Otero County — even even though point out law enables most abortion processes.

The nonbinding anti-abortion resolution, authorised in a 3- vote, explained the fee “stands firmly against the presence in the county of Prepared Parenthood clinics or any other clinics in which abortion is practiced at will and on demand from customers.”

At minimum two teams have introduced ideas to open up new abortion facilities in New Mexico immediately after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in June overturned Roe v. Wade and took absent women’s constitutional defense for abortion nationwide.

One particular of them is the abortion company at the middle of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Well being Group choice that overturned Roe.

Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin sponsored of the resolution that condemns “voluntary abortion” procedures. He stated it responds to worries that New Mexico may possibly develop into a regional hub for people today trying to find abortions from neighboring states where by the treatments are unlawful or greatly restricted.

The resolution suggests abortion techniques aimed at safeguarding the well being of a mom “will just take location in a community medical center underneath the care of a physician,” and that the county will take a “neutral position” in circumstances involving incest or rape.

Otero County Lawyer Roy Nichols mentioned the resolution does not have any legal ramifications.

“This is not heading to outlaw nearly anything. This is much more for the opinion to be expressed,” he explained.

The Democrats who handle the New Mexico Legislature guidance access to abortion, as does Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Condition lawmakers very last 12 months repealed a dormant 1969 law that outlawed most New Mexico abortion methods as felonies, making sure obtain to abortion even just after the Supreme Court rolled back the countrywide guarantee.

Uncooked thoughts about authorities regulation of abortion emerged at the Otero County fee conference in Alamogordo for debate on the resolution, with dueling references to Christian scripture and quotations from the U.S. founders aimed at bolstering arguments for and against authorized abortion obtain.

Commissioner Gerald Matherly mentioned he voted versus a related anti-abortion resolution 3 yrs back and supported the new evaluate for the reason that it leaves out opposition to abortions in circumstances of rape, incest or when a woman’s daily life is in risk.

“The condition aids (with) start control supplements, they are encouraging the moms following the toddlers are born,” Matherly mentioned. “I really do not imagine that a particular person can just go out and have a wild Friday night — she will get expecting and can go off and get an abortion. She must have, some people really should have, obligations.”

Griffin — a firebrand conservative who was convicted of moving into a limited place at the U.S. Capitol in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — urged other rural, conservative counties to adopt identical resolutions to try out to comprise the proliferation of abortion clinics.

“If the governor needs to embrace it in Santa Fe, if they want to have abortion clinics in Las Cruces, if they want to do it in Albuquerque, they are very well inside of their legal rights to do so,” Griffin mentioned. “But if they don’t want it Carlsbad, if they don’t want it in Roswell, if they don’t want it in Farmington, then these county fee boards need to get the same variety of resolution handed.”

Lujan Grisham signed an government buy previous thirty day period that prohibits cooperation with other states that may possibly interfere with abortion access in New Mexico, declining to have out any long run arrest warrants from other states connected to anti-abortion provisions.

The buy also prohibits most New Mexico state staff members from assisting other states in investigating or trying to find sanctions versus local abortion vendors.