AXIOS – New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) signed an executive order Wednesday setting aside $10 million to develop a new [abortion] clinic near the state’s Texas border.
Why it matters:
The new clinic will expand access in the state to the “full spectrum of reproductive health care” and help it prepare for a potential increase in people seeking abortions from other states that have restricted or banned access to the procedure in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The big picture:
The new clinic will be established in Doña Ana County, which borders Texas and is about 100 miles east from the state’s Arizona border, per the Washington Post …
“Abortion isn’t health care. And it’s time to stop playing word games. Abortion doesn’t treat a disease or improve a disorder. It forcibly ends a life.” – Benjamin Watson, NEWSWEEK, March 11., 2022
Both Arizona and Texas have restricted access to abortion.
The executive order also directs New Mexico’s Department of Health to create a plan to ensure abortion medications are available in public health clinics, broadening access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, in rural and underserved parts of the state …
The other side:
Elisa Martinez, a former Republican primary candidate for the U.S. Senate in New Mexico, lambasted the decision in a tweet Wednesday, writing that the order would “force taxpayers to fund…a new abortion business!” …
The new clinic will be located 27 miles from the New Mexico/Texas border. Texas has the second-largest population of unauthorized immigrants in the country.
