Three Laws New Mexico Legislators Need To Pass Now
Updated: May 15, 2021
As New Mexico heads into its next legislative session, there are a number of issues regarding abortion that desperately need to be addressed by legislators. Through the work Abortion On Trial has done in 2020, immense flaws in standards for New Mexico have been exposed. These flaws have already resulted in injury, emotional torment, and even the death of women seeking abortion services in New Mexico.
As a result of finding these significant concerns about public safety, AOT asks New Mexico legislators to consider the following opportunities to protect women and children in their state.
1. Jessica’s Law
Anti-coercion statute with misdemeanor penalties for guilty parties.
This bill would prevent coercion from intimate partners as well as providers. Providers shall not use illegal means to coerce a patient into obtaining an abortion, i.e., false imprisonment. Anyone proven to have broken the anti-coercion law would be charged with a misdemeanor offense.
Click here to see why New Mexico needs this law.
2. Nicole's Law
No off label use of Digoxin (a heart medication intended for non-pregnant adults)
Currently, abortion providers in New Mexico are legally allowed to misuse Digoxin to cause fetal demise in elective abortion despite it adding a six times greater risk of infection to the woman receiving it. Abortion specialist and expert witness Lisa Keder stated: “Scientific research shows no medical benefit for the use of digoxin.” New Mexico abortion providers misusing digoxin on unknowing patients has already resulted in long-term physical injury.
Click here to see why New Mexico needs this law.
3. Keisha’s Law
labor Inductions must be performed in a hospital setting
No abortion procedures to be performed in hotel rooms.
Hospitals have early warning systems to alert providers to sepsis and pulmonary embolism cases that hotels and outpatient monitoring do not have. Both physical conditions are common risks for death, according to the safe motherhood initiative. In addition to the safety of the woman obtaining the abortion, public safety is compromised when biohazard materials from labor and delivery are left in public areas without medical level sanitation.
Click here to see why New Mexico needs this law.
All three of the above proposed are passable and essential to the well-being of women in New Mexico. Though not outlawing abortion directly, these proposed legislative moves could produce a dramatic shift in the abortion culture of New Mexico. New Mexico shouldn’t be a state thought of for the ability to obtain an elective late-term abortion in a hotel room, but right now it is. These small moves would ultimately save countless lives.
“We need to continue to work together to keep these issues front and center so New Mexican's know just how bad it is to be the abortion capital of the nation, said New Mexico State Representative David Gallegos, “This needs to change. It is no longer just a talking point. We need to continue to stand and fight.”
Abortion On Trial is beseeching the elected representatives of New Mexico to take up any of these three urgent and necessary abortion-related proposals. Let there be no more Jessicas, no more Nicoles, and no more Keishas. The support for legal abortion in New Mexico is tremendous. Let us present and pass these realistic restricting measures to protect lives from the dangerous lack of standards currently held in New Mexico.
Dominique Davis of New Mexico’s Project Defending Life says, “We’re asking legislators to protect women who are, in some cases, dying due to a lack of dignifying standards of care for women obtaining abortions. These protections are basic: no coercion, no off-use label of digoxin, labor inductions need to be done in a hospital, not a hotel room. Women deserve these basic protections.”
Abortion On Trial will stand beside and actively fight for success on any and all of the above proposed measures. We offer our court-level evidence, provider records, and under oath deposition testimony as tools for success. This is something that can be done. So it is something that must be done. Together and now...for the sake of New Mexico...for the sake of life.