New Mexico State Legislators Want to Ban Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn
The movement to pass local ordinances defending the right to life of the preborn has been gathering speed over the last few years. New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, North Carolina and Mississippi have all passed ordinances at the local level either prohibiting abortion or declaring themselves to be pro-life.
Short History of Sanctuary Cities
In 2013, citizens of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the late term abortion capital of the United States, gathered enough signatures to put a local ordinance banning late term abortion on the ballot. The ballot issue attracted national attention, but unfortunately lost as the pro-abortion forces spent almost $800,000 versus pro-lifer’s $200,000 to defeat the measure.
In 2019, Personhood North Carolina successfully passed a local ordinance declaring Yadkin county to be a sanctuary for life. The resolution read, in part:
The Yadkin County Board of Commissioners hereby recognizes and declares the full humanity of the preborn child and declares Yadkin County to be a sanctuary for the preborn where the dignity of every human being will be defended and promoted from conception or fertilization through all stages of development.
Yadkin County Resolution declaring itself a sanctuary for the preborn (2019)
From 2019 to 2020, nine cities in Mississippi, under the leadership of Pastor Ryan Sullivan and Personhood Mississippi declared themselves to be sanctuary cities.
Since then, Mark Lee Dickson of East Texas Right to Life as well as other national and local groups have successfully passed local resolutions in Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Louisiana, Iowa and Arkansas.
New Mexico Democrats Planning State Legislation
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, New Mexico Democrats have thrown in their lot with the abortion industry. Last year the legislature overturned their pre-Roe abortion ban, which had originally been passed in 1969, and which included exceptions allowing the killing of children conceived in rape and incest. The effort was led by state legislator Linda Lopez, a Democrat from Albuquerque. Ms. Lopez is now introducing the legislation which will aim to prohibit any local municipality from outlawing abortion.
According to the Senate Majority leader, Tim Wirth, the aim of the bill will be to “prohibit public bodies, including local municipalities, from denying, restricting or discriminating against an individual’s right to use or refuse reproductive health care, or health care related to gender.”
Democrats in the state of New Mexico have a very close relationship with the abortion industry with the radical pro-abortion politicians channelling money from the tax payer to the abortion industry and the abortion industry funding the politician’s campaigns.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham won reelection in November campaigning as a champion of the right to kill children before birth while promising to hand $10 million of tax-payer funds to the abortion industry in order to build a state of the art baby killing center in southern New Mexico. The evil governor stated that her goal was to “build it and they will come“, referring to her plans to attract abortion tourism.
The Democrat controlled legislature convened yesterday, and is expected to pass the legislation outlawing local pro-life ordinances.
Pro-lifers maintain that the state legislation will be powerless to prohibit the local cities and towns from outlawing abortion due to the localities reliance on federal law that prohibits the distribution of abortion causing drugs and devices. This novel strategy was proposed in the recent sanctuary city law in Pueblo, Colorado, and was designed by prominent pro-life Texas attorney Jonathan Mitchell.
