Time and time again, New Mexicans have shown we believe women deserve access to compassionate, high-quality reproductive health care, including abortion care. We've also made clear a woman should be able to get the care she needs without government interference. New Mexicans deserve nothing less than to have those values represented in our government. However, we continually see attempts to restrict access to abortion care, including forced parental notification and banning abortion later in pregnancy. These are nothing but blatant attempts to create political interference in the personal decisions of women and their families. In the 2017 legislative session, Governor Susana Martinez personally encouraged a forced parental notification bill.
Conservatives in our state House are following in the Governor’s steps and ignoring what people in New Mexican know to be true: personal medical decisions ought to be left between a woman, her family, and her medical provider. House Republicans, including Representative Maestas Barnes, Hall, Adkins, Rodella, Little, and Youngblood consistently misrepresent New Mexican values by supporting these harmful pieces of legislation, despite hearing from large numbers of constituents voicing their support for reproductive health care access. Representative Gentry, the Republican House leader, prioritized restriction on abortion access. In one session, even though the legislature and Governor had not agreed on a budget, he ensured that hours of debate were spent on a bill attempting to restrict access to abortion care in New Mexico.
In 2018, it is unacceptable to allow people to represent New Mexico in our government who simply do not represent the values that our communities hold dearly.
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