Threats to a woman’s right to choose aren’t just limited to “red” states but can happen in localities and counties in which conservative thinking dominates both politics and ordinances.

Last week, Raul Torrez (New Mexico Attorney General) called on the carpet municipalities in the predominately “blue” Land of Enchantment for passing ordinances regulating access to abortions. Torrez filed a suit against Roosevelt and Lea counties and the cities of Clovis and Hobbs for passing ordinances that target abortion clinics and related services offered by those clinics.

Last November in Hobbs, an abortion ordinance banning the operation of abortion clinics within city limits was approved 7-0 by an all-male city council, and more recently Rosevelt County passed a bill 4-1 restricting an area clinic’s ability to ship abortion supplies through the mail. Clovis city commissioners passed a similar bill earlier this month prohibiting the sale of abortion supplies via the mail.

In a similar vein to Texas’ Senate, Bill 8 passed last year, the Roosevelt County abortion bill also gives private citizens the power to sue anyone suspected of violating the ordinance and seek damages of up to $100,000 per violation.

Considering that more than half of abortions in the US are done with pills, the Rosevelt County and Clovis bills are especially hard on residents of those rural areas where the closest abortion clinics are a three-hour drive away or more.

It’s fairly obvious that these rulings came about as a result of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, opening the door for states to regulate access to reproductive health care. However, in this case, it’s not the state of New Mexico that is redrawing abortion laws, it’s local governments. 

Hence AG Torez’s lawsuit against these municipalities. 

Torrez said in an interview regarding the suit: “Number one: are these counties acting within their authority to regulate access to reproductive healthcare? And number two: are they infringing on a constitutional right guaranteed by the New Mexico Constitution?…Simply put, local communities are not empowered to regulate medical services; they are not empowered to regulate access to health care.”

Torrez contends that those local ordinances misinterpret a 19th-century federal law prohibiting abortion medications to be sent by mail. I’m scratching my head on this one since the DOJ ruled in 2021 that the mailing of abortion medications is not in violation of this law, known as the Comstock Act.

Hobbs Mayor Sam Cobb defended the ordinance, stating that it was proposed in public meetings and supported by city residents, and claimed that “The Ordinance does not ban abortions or abortion clinics in Hobbs.” True, the ordinance does not ban clinics per se within city limits, but in fact, bans any clinics that would seek to obtain a business license.

There are no abortion clinics in Hobbs.

It is clear that these communities have intentionally misapplied old federal laws to regulate abortion rights and they are in violation of the New Mexico constitution. 

As Torrez has stated, “This is not Texas. Our State Constitution does not allow cities, counties, or private citizens to restrict women’s reproductive rights.”