FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2020
Contact: Kelly Novak, [email protected]
With important wins for champions of reproductive freedom, New Mexico stands to protect and expand access to reproductive health, rights, and justice, including abortion care
New York – The National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) Action Fund congratulates and celebrates alongside winners in New Mexico’s state level races, sustaining a legislature that can protect and expand reproductive freedom, including access to abortion. New Mexico is a critical access point for reproductive health and abortion care in the southwest, and NIRH Action Fund worked in both the primary and the general election to protect champions and expand majority support in the state senate to repeal the state’s outdated abortion ban.
“Securing reproductive freedom, including access to abortion, means we need victories up and down the ticket,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) Action Fund. “We are so thrilled to have worked alongside partners in New Mexico and to see these victories come to fruition. The purpose of NIRH Action Fund’s electoral program is to lay the groundwork for policy change in every state in which we work. We aim to elect leaders who will create proactive, visionary policies that will help our communities thrive, and to reelect our proven champions.”
While New Mexico holds a democratic trifecta, anti-abortion Democrats have blocked critical legislation related to reproductive health and abortion access in past years. In 2018, NIRH Action Fund worked to help oust anti-abortion Democrats in the New Mexico house by supporting challengers who ran on a proactive reproductive justice platform. Unfortunately, members of the state senate didn’t get the message.
When seven conservative Democrats voted to protect an outdated anti-abortion law, the voters of New Mexico were paying attention — 77 percent of New Mexicans respect a woman’s personal decisions about abortion and want it to remain between a woman and her health care provider.
In 2020, the NIRH Action Fund partnered with Forward Together Action and Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico to support a variety of political programs — mail, digital, radio, phone/text, and organizing — in both the primary and general elections that were designed to engage and activate the public around the issue of reproductive freedom.
NIRH Action Fund is especially thrilled for victories in the following races: SD5 Leo Jaramillo (D); SD28 Siah Correa Hemphill (D); SD38 Carrie Hamblen (D); HD13 Patricia Roybal Caballero (D); HD33 Michaela Lara Cadena (D); HD41 Susan Herrera (D); HD43 Christine Chandler (D); and HD46 Andrea Romero (D).
“This election demonstrated yet again that people want elected officials who will stand up for reproductive freedom,” Miller said. “With a slew of candidates who ran and won on a strong platform of support for reproductive freedom, the legislature now has an opportunity and a mandate to pass laws that will advance reproductive health, rights, and justice.”
“Today’s victories prove once again that New Mexico voters want state legislators who will defend reproductive freedom,” said Sarah Taylor-Nanista, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico. “We thank the NIRH Action Fund for its support to further secure a majority in the New Mexico state legislature that respects women and their personal decisions about abortion. We look forward to seeing voters’ voices at the ballot box transform into lasting legislative change protecting every person’s ability to make their own decisions about their bodies, lives and futures.”
“We are doing what no other national organization is doing in the states: making sure that candidates and campaigns have the tools they need to run, win, and govern on a proactive reproductive rights, health, and justice platform,” Miller concluded. “As we head into 2021, we are ready to work with our partners on the ground to pass the policies needed to advance reproductive freedom.”
###
The National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) and the National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund (NIRH Action Fund) are advocacy groups that fight to protect and advance access to reproductive health care and build political power for reproductive freedom. They work hand-in-hand with reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations in states and cities across the country to build coalitions, launch campaigns, change policy, and elect candidates who stand up for everyone’s right to control their reproductive lives. Their strategy is to go on the offensive to pass laws that safeguard reproductive freedom. They work in the communities where change is needed, so the fabric of reproductive freedom becomes harder to tear apart.