POST-ROE REACTION

BY JULIA GOLDBERG @votergirl

New state protections enacted this week are intended to shield New Mexico health care workers who provide reproductive health services to out-of-state residents, as well as those who come here seeking abortions.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order June 27 in the wake of the June 24 US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and ending a 50-year-long constitutional right to abortion. Last year, in anticipation of the court’s action, New Mexico’s legislators repealed a 1969 state law that had criminalized abortion.

Lujan Grisham’s order is aimed at protecting health care providers from discipline due to out-of-state residents receiving abortion services in New Mexico, and also makes clear the state will refuse to cooperate with extradition attempts from other states pursuing charges against anyone receiving or performing reproductive services, among other provisions.

“It’s still shocking, frankly, that we’re having this conversation,” Lujan Grisham said during a news conference with other reproductive health advocates from Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union and NM Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “But we will not further imperil the rights and access points of anyone in the state of New Mexico…As long as I’m governor, everyone in the state of New Mexico will be protected. Out-of-state residents seeking access will be protected. Providers will be protected, and abortion is and will continue to be legal, safe and accessible.”

Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, recently signed into law similar executive orders that reflect the rapidly changing and uncertain landscape for abortion services following SCOTUS’ reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Abortion is now illegal in at least seven states, with more bans pending and several court battles in the offing. New Mexico is one of 20 states, plus Washington, DC, with access to abortion and one of just seven without a gestational limit. The state has already seen an influx of patients since Texas enacted a ban on abortions after six weeks last September; that state has a “trigger” law that will go into effect 30 days after last Friday’s ruling, effectively banning all abortions.

More pointedly, both Texas and Oklahoma have laws allowing private citizens to sue people who perform or help others access abortion services. It remains to be seen if states will pass laws intended to criminalize people who seek abortions out of state, or those who help them in other states. (In his concurring opinion, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that in “my view” states would not be allowed to bar people from traveling to other states for abortions “based on the constitutional right to interstate travel.”)

State Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, the lead sponsor of last year’s bill repealing criminalization of abortion in New Mexico, said during the news conference she and others want to make sure those coming to the state seeking abortion services “are safe…We know that other states will be trying their hardest to criminalize this action. And we need to make sure that our professionals and those within our borders are protected. And I know this will do that. There’s much more to come.”

Lujan Grisham said she did not anticipate needing to call a special legislative session in advance of next year, though she added: “We’re going to have to wait and see what other surprises are potentially in store from the Supreme Court.”

Nonetheless, she said she anticipated a push for additional public health funding “to make sure that we are engaging in provider access and support,” as well as educational campaigns. And while abortion is legal in New Mexico, she added, “I am sure that we are going to look to codify it…We’ll make sure that we just do that. And we might want to buttress some other potential losses by the Supreme Court at the same time. It may not be the only issue; I would say same sex marriage: Codify that.”

Ellie Rushforth, a reproductive rights lawyer with ACLU New Mexico, told SFR the decision represents not just a “looming public health crisis” but a “constitutional crisis” as well. During the news conference, she noted that SCOTUS had dealt “a devastating blow to equality in this country...You cannot have a functioning democracy without the ability to make a…personal reproductive health care decision. And at the ACLU, we are doing everything we can in collaboration with leadership, with our allies, with our partners, to ensure that no one is criminalized no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money they make, from making private medical decisions.”

JULIA GOLDBERG

GRANT CRAWFORD

ABOVE: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, left, and Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, spoke before the governor signed an executive order on June 27, 2022. BELOW: Amy Susynski, left, and Yuki Murata attend a demonstration outside the New Mexico State Capitol building in Santa Fe after the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.