How New Mexico Became a Sanctuary State for Health Care - abortion, trans gender, free vax and child care
How New Mexico Became a Sanctuary State for Health Care
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the number of abortion clinics there has doubled. With strong protections for gender-affirming treatment, and now universal child care, the state is betting on a progressive vision.
In recent years, New Mexico has quietly emerged as a progressive health-care sanctuary in the Southwest. Since the Dobbs decision, the number of abortion clinics in New Mexico has more than doubled, as clinics that were forced to close their doors elsewhere have reopened in the state, which has no gestational limits on abortion. More than ten thousand women have travelled there to receive abortion care. New Mexico is “taking on the burden for women who don’t have these protections in places like Texas and Oklahoma and Nevada and Utah,” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told me. The state also has among the strongest protections in the Southwest for gender-affirming care for both adults and minors. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance limiting the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine to certain populations, New Mexico’s Department of Health promptly ordered pharmacies to make the vaccine available to anyone who wanted it. This November, New Mexico will become the first state to offer universal free child care to all residents, regardless of income—an initiative that Lujan Grisham has spoken about as being part of a broader attempt to improve the health of New Mexicans.
New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the country; it also ranks near the bottom in terms of health outcomes. It’s banking on the idea that improving access to abortion, as well as other progressive health-care priorities, will help not only out-of-state patients but residents as well. “New Mexicans always think of their state as last, and I don’t know why that is,” Lujan Grisham told me. “These are huge announcements. There’s a lot we can do better, but New Mexico is on the forefront in a lot of ways.”
-----
New Mexico’s strong stance on abortion may seem surprising since it is more rural and more religious than much of the country. “New Mexico’s the West, not the South,” McFarlane said. “It might be religious, but it’s not as evangelical as some other states.” She also pointed out that more than half of the members of the state legislature are women, making the state second only to Nevada in terms of female representation. Lujan Grisham said she believes that the state’s high rates of poverty contribute to general support for abortion. “When you have access-to-health-care problems, as we do, it is not lost on any New Mexican how risky taking away our fundamental reproductive rights are,” she said. “And when you’re a particularly poor state, that can be much more pronounced.”
How New Mexico Became a Sanctuary State for Health Care | The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/how-new-mexico-became-a-sanctuary-state-for-health-care
= new reply since forum marked as read
