Dan McKay – ABQ Journal 1/14/23

SANTA FE — Democratic lawmakers pledged Friday to pursue legislation that would prohibit counties from interfering with abortion rights and allow individuals to sue if their reproductive health care information is shared.

The legislative package is aimed at strengthening abortion rights in a state where abortion is already legal but some city and counties are targeting it with local anti-abortion ordinances.

The bill sponsors said they also want to safeguard the privacy of individuals who might travel to New Mexico because of abortion restrictions imposed in their home states.

The legislative package is expected to be broken into two bills — one starting in the House, the other in the Senate.

“We want to make sure people aren’t scared to get the health care they need,” Democratic Rep. Linda Serrato of Santa Fe said Friday in an online news conference.

She plans to sponsor a bill prohibiting cities, counties or other public bodies from restricting reproductive health care rights. It would also prohibit discrimination against an individual’s right to health care related to gender.

The proposal follows the passage of anti-abortion ordinances in Roosevelt County and other communities near the Texas line.

Roosevelt County commissioners, for example, voted for an ordinance that aims to ban use of the mail or other interstate carriers to deliver abortion drugs. It would be enforced by allowing individuals to file civil lawsuits seeking damages of at least $100,000.

Commissioner Rodney Savage, a Republican from Portales, said the Legislature should allow communities to develop their own abortion regulations.

“There’s overwhelming support for pro-life in our part of the country,” he told the Journal.

Ellie Rushforth, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, said the local anti-abortion ordinances are already unconstitutional. But the state legislation would address misinformation, she said, and make it clear that access to abortion or other health care can’t be curtailed by local politicians.

A second proposal — to be sponsored by Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque — would put into law an executive order issued last year by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, prohibiting state agencies from sharing the reproductive health care information of patients or providers.

It’s intended, supporters said, to protect people from out-of-state investigations or harassment.

The measure would also allow patients or providers to file lawsuits against public agencies, private companies or nonprofit groups that share personal medical data related to reproductive health care.

“While (federal law) provides some protections for this information, we know that it is not enough,” Rushforth said, “particularly given the insidious attacks on reproductive freedom.”

The two bills are expected to be introduced in the 60-day legislative session that opens Tuesday.

The package comes after abortion rights played a central role in the 2022 campaigns for the Roundhouse.

Democrats — who maintained a healthy majority in the state House and kept control of the executive branch — vowed to safeguard reproductive health care rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the debate to state governments.

Abortion has remained legal in New Mexico because Lujan Grisham signed legislation two years ago repealing a 1969 statute that made it a crime in most cases.