Commentary: Today, community leaders from throughout New Mexico are speaking out against Texas’ clinic shutdown law that targets abortion providers and clinics. The Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the law today.
The law, HB 2, would place burdensome regulations on abortion clinics and providers by requiring that all clinics in the state qualify as “ambulatory surgical centers” and all doctors performing an abortion have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. These mandates are known as TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws and are designed to restrict access to safe and legal abortion by forcing a clinic to close because it cannot comply with the strict and unnecessary requirements.
Major medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, oppose TRAP laws because they are medically unnecessary. If the law goes into effect, there would be no abortion clinic in the state of Texas west of San Antonio, forcing many women to drive hundreds of miles to New Mexico to access a safe and legal abortion.
“These politically motivated laws are designed to drive abortion providers out of their own communities and take away a woman’s access to healthcare. Laws that callously put the health and safety of women at risk have no place anywhere in our country," said ACLU of New Mexico Legal Director Alexandra Freedman Smith. “A woman in Texas should be able to receive care in her own community-she shouldn’t have to drive hundreds of miles or cross state lines to access a safe and legal abortion,” said Smith.
"Estamos con nuestras vecinas en Tejas y con mujeres y familias en todo el país quien no tienen acceso al cuidado medico adecuado o a los recursos que necesitan para hacer decisiones sobre su propias vidas y cuerpos" said Tannia Esparza, Executive Director of Young Women United. "We know the unnecessary restrictions being debated in HB2 bear the heaviest burden on the health and well-being of real people-our women and families of color," said Tannia Esparza, Executive Director of Young Women United.
"Planned Parenthood of New Mexico is proud to be part of a strong coalition that stands by New Mexican women and their families and protects access to reproductive health and healthcare. As the Supreme Court takes on HB 2, we remain committed to ensuring women can access care in their home communities," said Marshall Martinez, Planned Parenthood New Mexico.
“The personal decision to end a pregnancy needs to remain solely where God has entrusted it, with a woman, according to her own faith and values, with the counsel of the medical professionals, faith leaders, friends and family she wishes to involve, without government interference,” said Rev. Patrick Crocker, Hospice Chaplin, Disciples of Christ, Las Cruces