Dear Friends:
Family Policy Alliance of New Mexico is proud to be part of an alliance of state-based organizations working to advance and defend biblical values in government. This week, I was blessed to join my colleagues from the other states in Washington D.C. for a 3-day workshop covering some of the challenges and opportunities we face as family policy councils.
In one of our sessions, we discussed pro-life legislation and litigation, as well as the battle to preserve conscience protection for medical providers. This discussion reminded me of the challenges we face in New Mexico headed into the 2019 Legislative Session, including the effort to repeal one of our state’s only abortion laws. In case you missed it, last week, pro-abortion Democrats in the Legislature announced plans to introduce legislation to repeal an existing abortion statute which, among others things, protects hospitals and providers from recrimination when they refuse to offer or perform abortions on “moral and religious grounds.” And should it pass the House and Senate, Governor-Elect Michelle Lujan-Grisham has already stated: “…that would be something we would sign.”
This announcement came on the heals of a recent article exposing a shocking revelation regarding the transportation of pregnant minors to New Mexico. According to federal court documents, under the Obama administration, pregnant minors in federal custody were transported to New Mexico for abortions to circumvent other states’ parental notification and/or consent requirement laws. In 2014, for example, a minor girl at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) requested an abortion, but did not want her parents to know she was pregnant. Because she was in a state with parental consent requirements, an ORR field specialist emailed other ORR staff members and explained, “This is why termination of pregnancies are done in New Mexico due to the fact that currently (by law) there is no parental consent requirement.”
With some of the fewest abortion restrictions in the nation, New Mexico is already notorious for its late-term abortion activity. Now we know that the federal government transported minors across state lines, into our state, for the sole purpose of obtaining abortions that would have been illegal in other states.
These realities beg the question—why would we attempt to further loosen our state’s abortion laws and force healthcare providers and faith-based hospital to perform abortions against their conscience?
The strategy by the abortion industry and its supporters is clear—to remove all restrictions and prevent any attempt to regulate abortions in New Mexico, even if it means violating a person’s First Amendment rights.
Friends—we must stop this, and come January, we will have our opportunity!
I look forward to working with you.
Sincerely,
Vince Torres
President and Executive Director
