Edgewood OKs anti-abortion measure, setting up fight with state

Apr. 26—Edgewood has joined a handful of Eastern New Mexico communities that have passed local ordinances to restrict access to abortion pills and other abortion-related materials, setting the small town up for a fight with a state government determined to protect abortion access.

After over eight hours of debate and public testimony, Edgewood town commissioners voted 4-1 early Wednesday morning to approve the ordinance. Like a similar one in Roosevelt County and an abortion ban passed in Texas in 2021, the measure would be enforced via lawsuits filed by private citizens rather than by police or prosecutors.

It allows a person — though not the town, the state, a political subdivision or an employee of a government agency — to sue anyone who violates the ordinance, with a minimum fine of $100,000. It is unclear from the ordinance how or through which courts these lawsuits would be filed.

Like several local ordinances passed recently in conservative Eastern New Mexico, the Edgewood ordinance cites as its justification the federal 1873 Comstock Act, which prohibits mailing abortion-related materials but which has long gone unenforced by the federal government. And like these measures, it is likely to be challenged in court by a state government largely controlled by pro-abortion rights Democrats.

"The ordinance passed last night in Edgewood is yet another example of Texas-based lawyers misleading local communities and enlisting them in their effort to bring about a national abortion ban," Lauren Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Raúl Torrez, said in an email.

Torrez's office is suing to overturn similar local ordinances in Eastern New Mexico. Democratic state lawmakers have also been pushing to protect abortion rights via statute — last month, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a new law prohibiting local governments from restricting access to abortion care.

"Abortion is legal and accessible in New Mexico, and we are confident that the courts will uphold the law," Maddy Hayden, a spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, wrote in an email Tuesday.

Although Santa Fe County as a whole votes overwhelmingly Democratic, Edgewood — a town of about 6,000 that lies along old Route 66 on the southern end of the county — is much more conservative, with all of its precincts giving more than 60% of their vote in 2020 to former President Donald Trump.

"They're trying to take away your right to govern in your local community at the local level," said Sen. David Gallegos, R-Eunice, who testified in favor of the ordinance virtually.

Commissioners voted 3-2 against a last-minute amendment introduced by Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Powers which would have delayed implementing the ordinance until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on whether the provision of the Comstock Act — originally intended to stop the mailing of contraceptives, lewd literature or any devices that could be used in an abortion — is still relevant.

The commission also voted against Powers' efforts to amend the measure to call a special election within 90 days to allow Edgewood voters to decide the matter.

"It's a very heated, divisive issue," Powers said during the meeting. "People have strong feelings on every side."

Powers said Edgewood's lawyers have said the vote could embroil the small town in an expensive legal battle. Commissioner Filandro Anaya supported Powers' amendment efforts, but Mayor Audrey Jaramillo and commissioners Sterling Donner and Ken Brennan did not, voting them down. In the end, Powers voted with Jaramillo, Donner and Brennan to approve the original ordinance.

"You are asking four men and one woman to make a decision for all these women out here in the audience and the entire state of New Mexico, along with the town of Edgewood," Anaya said as he argued in favor of holding a public vote. "I don't think that's right. I don't want four men up here telling all the women and their husbands or spouses that you can and cannot do something like that. This is between them and their doctors and only between them and their doctors."

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 49-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling that previously protected abortion rights nationwide last year, many Republican-run states have banned or restricted abortion, while Democratic-run ones, including New Mexico, have worked to expand access.

Local attempts to restrict abortion access in New Mexico prompted the Attorney General's Office to file a petition with the state Supreme Court earlier this year, asking justices to nullify them. Torrez recently wrote in a legal brief anti-abortion ordinances approved by elected officials in two cities and two counties in Eastern New Mexico violate the state Constitution's Bill of Rights, making them invalid. The court last month put a temporary halt on anti-abortion ordinances in the cities of Hobbs and Clovis and in Lea and Roosevelt counties in response to Torrez's petition.

"The New Mexico Constitution and state statutes prohibit local communities from regulating access to health care or infringing on a woman's fundamental right to make the most personal decision regarding her body and her future," Rodriguez wrote Thursday. "Attorney General Torrez is closely monitoring these unlawful actions and looks forward to resolving these important issues in the action currently pending in the New Mexico Supreme Court."

The city of Eunice, in southeastern New Mexico's Lea County near the Texas border, enacted a similar anti-abortion measure recently and filed a lawsuit in state court challenging House Bill 7, the legislation passed this year prohibiting local governments from restricting abortion.

Brennan offered a warning to those in attendance who approved the commission's vote.

"This is going to be a battle, this is going to be a long fight and it's going to be expensive," Brennan said.