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“Ideologically driven legislation like this has [the] exact opposite effect to what the sponsors proclaim, as it is a mandate on behavior to refer or participate in abortions and transgender procedures for every public employee.”
– ELISA MARTINEZ, NEW MEXICO ALLIANCE FOR LIFE
A radical new pro-abortion bill has been signed by New Mexico’s governor to stop any attempt by pro-life governments and voters to protect the lives of preborn babies at the local level, effectively codifying abortion access without limits in every part of the state.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs decision in June 2022, elected officials in several local New Mexico jurisdictions — the small rural cities of Hobbs, Clovis, and Eunice, along with Lea and Roosevelt counties — passed ordinances declaring themselves to be sanctuaries “for the unborn” as a way to keep abortion providers from operating inside their boundaries.
The areas are all strongly pro-life. In fact, when a group of pro-abortion advocates petitioned to hold a special election last fall that would give local voters a chance to overturn the pro-life ordinances, they couldn’t collect enough signatures to put it on the ballot.
In January, New Mexico’s Attorney General Raúl Torrez asked the state Supreme Court to nullify these local government ordinances, but the court has yet to rule on his legal challenge.
Now, however, the newly passed House Bill 7, titled “Reproductive & Gender-Affirming Health Care Act,” overrides all of those local efforts in order to make abortion more widely available within the state, as well as to ensure that gender-affirming healthcare — meaning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-altering surgeries — is accessible for those suffering from gender dysphoria.
Spearheaded by state Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, the bill actively prohibits all local governments, city councils, and school boards from “discriminating” against people based on their “reproductive choices.” According to the bill, reproductive and gender-affirming health care is defined as “psychological, behavioral, surgical, pharmaceutical and medical care, services and supplies that relate to the human reproductive system.”
Republican lawmakers in New Mexico put up a fight to protect preborn babies in their state. Between the House and the Senate, 11 amendments were introduced to HB 7, but none passed.
After passing the House with a 38-31 vote and the Senate with a 23-15 majority, HB 7 was signed into law by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D.
In response, Lauren Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Torrez’s office, wrote in an email that “This legislation will be helpful in preventing local governments from attempting to regulate abortion in the future. We will evaluate how this recently passed legislation affects our pending action [before the New Mexico Supreme Court] and stand prepared to defend it in future cases.”
Local leaders say they will challenge the constitutionality of the state law in federal court.
“Our collective plan from the beginning was knowing that (the ordinance) was going to lose at the state level and to get it out of the state and get it to the Supreme Court of the United States,” said Logan Brown, a science teacher in Hobbs, who was among a large group of local citizens who pushed for the pro-life measure. “That was always part of the plan. And so a lot of this has just kind of fallen into place.”
This is only the latest move Grisham has made to ensure that women can get an abortion in the state of New Mexico. In 2021, she infamously repealed a 1969 pre-Roe state law which made abortion a crime in the state.
“New Mexicans in every corner of our state deserve protections for their bodily autonomy and right to health care. I’m grateful for the hard work of the legislature and community partners in getting this critical legislation across the finish line,” Grisham said.
Some pro-life leaders, however, are sounding the alarm on this bill, and not just because it legalizes abortion without limits throughout New Mexico.
Elisa Martinez, executive director of the New Mexico Alliance for Life, emphasized that this legislation would create an “abortion compliance mandate” for all public sector employees, including teachers, across New Mexico as language in the bill explicitly prohibits public institutions, which receive taxpayer funding, and their employees from “interfering with or denying” a woman’s access to abortion. That would potentially even include elected leaders. Those who violate the law could face fines up to $5,000.
Martinez warned against this as early as February when the bill was first presented in the House, saying,
“Ideologically driven legislation like this has [the] exact opposite effect to what the sponsors proclaim, as it is a mandate on behavior to refer or participate in abortions and transgender procedures for every public employee.”
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a pro-life law firm, also commented on how strikingly radical this new legislation is. They say that HB 7, combined with Senate Bill 13, which would shield abortion providers (as well as healthcare professionals who perform gender-affirming treatments or surgery) from all out-of-state investigations, could effectively legalize infanticide, as well as protect and enable predatory and incompetent providers. SB 13 is expected to be signed soon by Gov. Grisham,
ACLJ attorney Olivia Summers commented that neither of the two bills includes the term “perinatal” as it pertains to reproductive health care. “By including the section that prohibits prosecution or punishment for not seeking perinatal care, the bill appears to be a cleverly crafted way to specifically protect against a failure to seek perinatal care for a baby born alive following a botched abortion,” she said.
Gov. Grisham has also promised to use $10 million of taxpayer funding to build an abortion clinic in southeast New Mexico, where local governments sought to restrict abortion access near the Texas border.
Another day, another radically demonic state legislature embedding the murder of preborn babies into the law under the guise of “health care.” Where many states chose to restrict abortion access in the wake of the demise of Roe v. Wade, New Mexico, an already liberal pro-abortion state, has chosen to double down on the slaughter of the preborn by overruling local governments and their citizens who sought to preserve life.
Not only is the authoritarian legislature infringing on the rights of the preborn through the passing of this bill, but it is also bringing its iron fist down on the average Joe government employee. Teachers must walk on even more eggshells to ensure that their commentary surrounding pregnancy, babies, abortion, or gender dysphoria is not deemed discriminatory by students and faculty.
Conformity is the way of the left. Cultural imperialism has proven to be the means by which progressive public officials accomplish their goals. They so adamantly worship the god of Molech that they will not only erase the will of the people in small-town New Mexico who want protections for babies in the womb, but they will also silence any and all dissenting voices.
Given the state of America at this time in history, it’s hard not to be reminded of God’s words in Jeremiah 19:3-6 as He prepares to bring His judgment on Israel:
“Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.”
Of course, America is not Israel of Jeremiah’s day, but it is no less wicked and depraved. It is now a place filled with “the blood of innocents.” America has become a “Valley of Slaughter.” And God holds no one blameless for such a crime.
Ready to dive deeper into the intersection of faith and policy? Head over to our Theology of Politics series page where we’ve published several long-form pieces that will help Christians navigate where their faith should direct them on political issues.
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