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Reproductive Rights

How Indigenous Women Repealed New Mexico’s Longstanding Abortion Ban

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Via Bustle, By Jennifer Gerson

When Terrelene Massey watched New Mexico’s bill to repeal the state’s abortion ban die in the state House in 2019, she was struck by what she calls a “convenient argument” made by some legislators: that they couldn’t vote in favor of the bill because their Native and Indigenous constituents were opposed to it. These legislators — by and large non-native — said their constituents’ cultural practices and spiritual beliefs were at odds with the pro-abortion measure.

Massey, the executive director of the Southwest Women’s Law Center, knew this couldn’t be true. From her own lived experience as a Navajo woman, and her professional experiences as an advocate for Indigenous women in the Southwest,she’d seen firsthand how her peers value body sovereignty as part of their spiritual traditions, and how Indigenous people throughout the region had longstanding, ancestral practices for delivering abortion care.

“Maybe it’s because I am Native American, I am more attuned to seeing what’s missing when we’re not at the table and people trying to fill in our voices for us — and filling that space with inaccuracies and myths,” Massey, who had advocated for the 2019 bill’s passage, tells Bustle.

Jennifer Gerson, Author, Bustle.com

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SB 10 – We are almost there!

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We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The finish line is in our sight. We are on the last leg of our journey. The repeal of New Mexico’s unconstitutional abortion ban is within our grasp. We are this close to completing this nearly fifty-year journey of removing the 1969 abortion ban from New Mexico’s criminal code.

The abortion ban repeal was passed on the Senate floor and sailed out of its five committee hearings with one technical amendment, which does not change the substance of the bill, meaning the repeal bill has not been changed, added to, or watered down. The next stop is the floor of both the New Mexico House and then to the Governor’s desk. This is clearly the most dangerous part of the journey.

The SWLC is so grateful for all the support you have provided in this process. Without the support of the abortion rights warriors in New Mexico, we could not have gotten this far in this righteous journey and we appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for getting us to this historic place. However, we have arrived at the pinnacle of this fight and we need you to stay strong. The anti-abortion rights supporters are bombarding our House and Senate members with unfounded and unbelievable claims about what repealing and removing the abortion ban from the books will do. The majority of these calls and emails are from outside their districts some even from outside the state, but they are still receiving an enormous amount of pressure from the other side.

Now is the time to contact your House members and help them to stay strong against the supporters of anti-abortion rights. Demand they vote “Yes!” to repeal the abortion ban statute and also let your legislators know that you support them in this fight, too. Tell them that you have stood beside them (virtually of course!) at every step in this journey and are there to sustain them, to give them the strength they will need to keep fighting, to bring this bill to the floor and vote to repeal the ban!

At this moment, we are on the precipice of history. What happens in the next few days will determine New Mexico’s place in this country. Will it be a state that robs pregnant people of their bodily autonomy or will New Mexico be a state that supports a pregnant person’s right to follow their own values when it comes to healthcare decisions, including abortion care? Know that you do have a say in this.

Please contact your representative. Let them know that you support SB10, the Respect Women and Families Act, which repeals the abortion ban in its entirety. Let your representatives know that you support them as well. They need to hear this.

You can find who your legislators are at:
https://www.nmlegis.gov/Members/Find_My_Legislator

Thank you for your support

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Abortion Care is Always Essential

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As 2020 finally comes to an end (thank goodness!) and we prepare to celebrate the December holidays in safe and thoughtful ways, we at the Southwest Women’s Law Center turn our attention to the upcoming legislative session, which begins at the end of January. While it is still unclear how the 2021 legislative session will proceed vis a vis Covid-19, one thing is certain, this will be a consequential legislative session.

The SWLC is involved in several pieces of legislation: the Paid Family Medical Leave Act which supports New Mexico workers who experience a serious medical condition, have or adopt a child, or need to care for someone experiencing a serious medical condition and a bill that temporarily expands Unemployment Insurance due to a public health emergency, such as COVID-19. The SWLC also supports a Paid Sick Leave bill to support workers so they do not have to go to work while they are ill and of course, legislation to repeal New Mexico’s dormant Abortion Ban.

The Abortion Ban passed in 1969 and was found for the most part to be unconstitutional in 1973 as a result of Roe v. Wade. The Abortion Ban is described as “dormant” because only two provisions of the law remain in effect, a religious refusal provision and a provision requiring licensed physicians to perform abortion procedures. The problem is that the Abortion Ban is still on the books in its entirety, including those provisions that were found unconstitutional in 1973. A complete and total repeal of the Abortion Ban is more important now than ever before.

The most devasting thing the outgoing Trump administration was able to achieve during the last four years was to stack the federal courts with ultra-right-wing attorneys in judicial positions in federal district, appellate and the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court now sits with a 6-3 conservative majority. The effects of stacking the federal bench will be felt for decades.

Roe v. Wade, decided by the Supreme Court in 1973, established the right to abortion care and is the only thing that stands between New Mexico in 2020, where decisions about when and if to parent are made freely, without interference by the state and New Mexico in 1969, where a panel of strangers will decide if you receive abortion care under a very limited set of circumstances and where medical providers could be criminally prosecuted for providing abortion care. Given the new conservative majority in the Supreme Court, it is a near certainty that they will take the first opportunity to overturn Roe. At the very moment Roe v. Wade is overturned, New Mexico will be thrown back to 1969 and the landscape relating to the provision of abortion care in New Mexico will be turned on its head. That is why it is so important to repeal the Abortion Ban in its entirety this upcoming legislative session. Time is literally running out.

We must remain vigilant. In addition to the overall threat to abortion rights in New Mexico due to the near-certain overturning of Roe v Wade, there are those opportunists who would attempt to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic and claim that abortion care is not “essential” and thus abortion care providers should be shut down during the pendency of the pandemic. This is of course nonsense. What could be more essential when it comes to the consequences of being denied abortion care? Yet there are also those who are so desperate and hateful that they argue healthcare workers in New Mexico who bravely and tirelessly stand up to COVID -19 every day should not be called heroes because they work in a facility where abortion care is provided. That type of reasoning can only be called twisted. Where does it end?

The SWLC urges New Mexicans to throw their support behind legislation to repeal the Abortion Ban in its entirety during this upcoming legislative session. You can find your legislator at Find My Legislator. It has to be done this legislative session. If Roe is overturned before the repeal of New Mexico’s Abortion Ban, at the risk of sounding dramatic, life as we know it will change. Please contact your legislators and make sure that you are heard during this very dangerous time in New Mexico. We are counting on you.

To donate to our efforts to repeal New Mexico’s dormant abortion ban, please visit our donation page.