State ex rel. Torrez v. Board of County Commissioners (New Mexico)
(N.M. Sup. Ct. No. S-1-SC-39742)
On May 1, 2023, Eastern New Mexico Rising filed an amicus brief in the New Mexico Supreme Court supporting the State of New Mexico’s lawsuit against four local ordinances restricting access to abortion. The brief details the harms that the ordinances in Clovis, Hobbs, Roosevelt County, and Lea County have on residents of these towns and counties along New Mexico’s border with Texas, where reproductive healthcare providers are in short supply. Notably, there are not enough local obstetricians to meet residents’ needs, and the closest abortion clinics are hundreds of miles away in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. The challenged ordinances compound access problems for people in these communities by, among other things, prohibiting telemedicine abortion providers from mailing abortion medications to them in accordance with state and federal law. The Lawyering Project represents Eastern New Mexico Rising.
In January 2025, the New Mexico Supreme Court permanently blocked local officials from enforcing the ordinances and cited ENMR’s brief in its ruling. In response to the municipalities’ argument that the ordinances are purely symbolic and don’t harm anyone, the Court noted that ENMR “raises countervailing considerations in explaining why this is not so”—notably that the ordinances impose actual and disproportionate harms on low-income people, people of color, undocumented people, and people living in rural communities. This was the final ruling on the matter, and the case is now closed.
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May 2, 2023