New Mexico governor starts abortion hotline staffed by state health department nurses
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has announced that her administration has established an abortion hotline for women seeking abortions in the state. The toll-free number will offer information on abortion facilities and connect callers with transportation options for abortion travel.
According to KVIAthe hotline will be staffed by registered nurses working for the New Mexico Department of Health, with salaries “to be funded by existing resources.”
“They’re really experienced in terms of helping New Mexicans, you know, access health resources and doing health checks over the phone,” said Madison Schaeffer with the New Mexico Department of Health. COAT. “We can meet someone’s needs right away and tell them ‘we have appointments next week here and we can get you in.’”
New Mexico is considered one of the most radical pro-abortion states in the country. Earlier this year, Lujan Grisham signed legislation that could eliminate conscience protections for abortion opponents, take away the right of local jurisdictions to make their own abortion laws, and result in minors legally obtaining abortions without parental knowledge or consent.
Last August, he signed an executive order stating that $10 million in state funds would be earmarked for the construction of a new abortion facility.
Abortion hotlines have also been set up in other states hoping to become abortion destinations, including Oregon and Massachusetts. In April, the Biden administration announced plans to establish its own hotline. While these hotlines typically pride themselves on “helping” women by offering them information about abortion, they provide little in the way of real help. Callers are not given information about services or pregnancy resource centers that can help them if they want to give birth to their children instead of ending their lives. Ethel Maharg, director of Love Life Alburquerque, told KOAT that this information is exactly what women need.
“The problem we have is that we don’t recognize that this is a life. It’s a child,” she said. “What if we help them pay the rent? How about we make their lives easier for that?”
According to KOAT, the New Mexico Department of Health reported that more than 5,000 abortions were performed in the state this year, more than twice as many as in all of 2021.
