Albuquerque Voters Reject Abortion Ban
Earlier
this year, an extremist anti-choice group descended upon Albuquerque to launch
a campaign that introduced a misleadingly titled ballot initiative that would
have denied women their constitutional rights by banning abortion at 20 weeks
of pregnancy. Yesterday, voters soundly rejected that effort, preserving access
to essential health care for women in that city and the surrounding area, according to USA Today:
“Albuquerque
families sent a powerful message today—they do not want the government
interfering in their private medical decisions,” Micaela Cadena with the
Respect ABQ Women campaign said in a statement. “Dangerous,
unconstitutional laws like the one we rejected today have no place in
Albuquerque, no place in New Mexico, no place anywhere in our nation.”
Harmful
and unconstitutional bans like these further underscore the need for the recently introduced federal Women’s Health Protection
Act — a historic piece of legislation designed to enforce and protect the rights
of every woman to obtain a full range of safe and legal reproductive health
care and decide for herself whether to continue or end a pregnancy, regardless
of where she lives.