Albuquerque, NM – Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a motion to stay a lawsuit filed by the city of Eunice which seeks to nullify the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Act. That law, which takes effect in June, prohibits local governments in the state from regulating or restricting access to abortion care.
The Attorney General’s motion asks the District Court to refrain from acting on Eunice’s lawsuit until the New Mexico Supreme Court renders an opinion on a previously filed case against several communities in eastern New Mexico who unlawfully sought to restrict access to abortion care based on a similar misapplication of a 19th century federal statute.
“We have asked the District Court to stay proceedings until the New Mexico Supreme Court can finally resolve the constitutional and statutory foundation for uniform access to reproductive healthcare across New Mexico,” said AG Torrez. “While local leaders in Eunice chose to announce their lawsuit from Washington D.C., this issue will be governed by state law, not some warped interpretation of an anti-vice federal statute from the 1870’s.”
“The New Mexico Constitution guarantees women equal rights under the law and the recently passed Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Act makes it clear that local governments have no authority to involve themselves in the most consequential and private decisions a woman should make in consultation with her family and her physician.”
“Attorney General Torrez has made the right call by requesting this stay until the Supreme Court rules that women’s reproductive rights are the law of the land,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. “We will continue to fight at every level to make sure that the autonomy of women is protected.”
The motion is below.
