Legislators to push for two reproductive bills in a post-Roe world

1 hour ago
ABORTION ACCESS

By Susan Dunlap

The New Mexico Legislature will debate its first two pieces of reproductive health care bills since the fall of Roe v. Wade last summer. One is designed to protect privacy and the other is intended to prevent municipalities and counties from placing local prohibitions on abortion care.

The one that could bring the most controversy is the Reproductive Health Care Freedom Act, sponsored by state House Rep. Linda Serrato and state Sen. Linda Lopez, both Democrats from Albuquerque. Serrato told NM Political Report that this bill was not crafted in response to the ordinances some New Mexico municipalities have considered or passed in some rural parts of the state. She said individuals within the reproductive health community were able to anticipate those actions ahead of time and were already talking about the bill before Clovis held a special city council meeting in mid-October to consider an ordinance that would have given the city council authority to deny an abortion clinic a license to practice within the city limits.

The ordinances prohibit abortion medication to be sent through the mail even though the U.S. Federal Drug Administration approved earlier this month enlarging the availability of abortion medication to more pharmacies, including mail-order companies.

“We’d been discussing it previously,” she told NM Political Report. “You could anticipate what was on the horizon. We need to have equal actions out there. It’s important for the well being for families.”

More:
https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2023/01/19/legislators-to-push-for-two-reproductive-bills-in-a-post-roe-world/