Photo: New Mexico Governor’s Office / Courtesy
By: The opinion Posted Mar 18, 2023, 19:14 pm EDT
The Democratic Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grishamenacted a law Thursday that prohibits local municipalities and other public agencies from interfering with a person’s ability to access reproductive health services, including right to abortioneither gender affirming for the community LGBTQaccording to CNN.
HB7, the state Gender Affirming and Reproductive Health Care Freedom Act, also prohibits any public agency impose laws, ordinances, policies or regulations that prevent patients from receiving reproductive or gender-affirming care.
The move comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of federal abortion rights last year and as several states have enacted measures to prevent minors from accessing gender-affirming care.
Gender affirming care is medically necessary, based on evidence using a multidisciplinary approach, to help a person transition from their assigned gender, the one the person was designated at birth, to their affirmed gender, the gender by which one wants to be known for and is necessary for gender-affirming care for trans youth, which advocates for the LGBTQ community have long emphasized as life-saving health care.
“New Mexicans in every corner of our state deserve protection for their bodily autonomy and right to health care,” said Governor Lujan Grisham. “I am grateful for the hard work of the Legislature and community partners in getting this critical legislation to the finish line,” the governor said in a statement.
Each violation of the law can result in a $5,000 fine or damages, whichever is greater, depending on the law.
The law follows ordinances that various municipalities in the state had previously passed related to access to abortion care after the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade last summer.
Although abortion is legal in New Mexico, several GOP-led states have introduced or enacted measures restricting abortion, including Texas and Oklahoma, which have banned the procedure at all stages of pregnancy with limited exceptions.
In response, New Mexico, a neighbor of both states, has allocated $10 million to build a new abortion clinic near the Texas border.
Several other Democratic-controlled states have moved to reaffirm reproductive care in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling against Roe v. Wade.
Keep reading:
• The Republican governor of Wyoming signs a law banning abortion pills
• Texas judge will hear arguments for and against the abortion pill
• The Kentucky Supreme Court rules in favor of upholding the state’s near-total abortion bans