A New Mexico town near the Texas border on Monday unanimously passed an ordinance designed to ban abortions, despite the procedure being legal in the state.
According to anti-abortion advocates, The so-called “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance blocks abortion clinics from operating and its passage by the Hobbs city commission marks a first for a town in a state controlled by the Democratic Party.
Hobbs does not have an abortion clinic but could be a place for such a clinic that could serve people from Republican-controlled Texas to the east.
Whole Woman’s Health, one of the largest providers of abortions in the United States, said it was interested in opening a clinic in Hobbs or nearby Clovis.
The all-male Hobbs city commission voted 7-0 to approve the ordinance after hearing from several speakers on both sides of the issue. The crowd of about 150 people packed into the commission chambers was overwhelmingly anti-abortion and erupted into shouting, hugging and crying in celebration when the ordinance was approved.
Vice-president of the Right to Life group of Lea County Jan Auld said, “This is just heaven, we’re leading the way and maybe, eventually we can turn this state around”
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in a written statement said that ‘’the ordinance had been authored by out-of-state extremists and that it is a clear affront to the rights and personal autonomy of every woman in Hobbs and south-eastern New Mexico, and we will not stand for it.”
Both Clovis and Hobbs are located in conservative eastern New Mexico. Clovis also does not currently have an abortion clinic. Both are considered test cases for how anti-abortion activists will operate in Democratic-controlled, states where abortion remains legal after the Supreme Court in June struck down federal abortion protections in Roe V. Wade.
Dickson said after the vote, “There are people all over the United States that are wanting to see their cities take steps to protect the health and welfare of unborn children, and I believe that this can be the path forward for every single state in America,”.
While Whole Woman’s Health has been interested in opening a clinic in Hobbs to serve women coming from Texas into New Mexico seeking the procedure, it now says the passage of the ordinance is now giving the provider pause about whether to do so.
