In 2014, abortion chain Whole Woman’s Health opened an abortion business just off the border of Texas, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The move was an unmistakable effort to evade the strident women’s safety laws of House Bill 2, the pro-life omnibus (provisions of which were ultimately argued before the Supreme Court in 2016) of Texas’ 2013 Legislative Session. Immediately, pro-life locals took action – namely, in the form of prayer.
Local pro-lifer Mark Cavaliere led several 40 Days for Life campaigns outside the abortion mill. The 40 Days for Life prayer warriors then formed the Coalition for Life of Las Cruces and were happy to report via a national 40 Days for Life email that, after more than two years of steadfast prayer and activism, “all signage on the former Whole Woman’s Health abortion facility has been removed, their office emptied, and their Texas-based call center confirms that their Las Cruces location has been closed!”
In a call to the Whole Woman’s Health phone number provided on the abortion mill’s website, Live Action News learned that the facility had closed at the beginning of January and that there were no other Whole Women’s Health businesses in the local area. Cavaliere was enthusiastic about the development and said the local community plans to continue its pro-life efforts in the wake of the closure.
“We saw the pro-life community unite across denominational, partisan, and organizational lines,” Cavaliere said of the pro-life efforts he helped to organize. He explained that the question of how to end abortion in a state so hostile toward human life was confounding at times. He told Live Action News:
Considering that the state government of New Mexico permits and protects abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, up to the day of birth, for any reason whatsoever, without any restrictions or regulations such as waiting periods or even parental consent, we knew we couldn’t hold our breath waiting on our state capitol or on campaign promises, but would have to depend entirely on local grassroots efforts. We decided to learn from others who had been successful at ending abortion in their cities and hoped to replicate their efforts and results here.
The solution, Cavaliere found, was the strength his community found in pro-life unity. Cavaliere and the community decided to follow the model used by the founders of 40 Days for Life in College Station, Texas. They established a Coalition for Life and sought guidance from groups like St. Louis Coalition for Life, Houston Coalition for Life, Central Texas Coalition for Life, and Sidewalk Advocates for Life.
“We began our focus on three areas of community stand-and-pray vigils, sidewalk advocacy and counseling, and local educational outreach,” explained Cavaliere. On Day 876 of their grassroots efforts, the Coalition for Life of Las Cruces learned that the abortion mill had closed.
“One less abortion mill in the world is something to celebrate,” Texas Right to Life spokeswoman Melissa Conway told Live Action News. “In reality, women don’t need profit-driven abortion businesses, which peddle abortion while offering little to no comprehensive healthcare services. Instead, their core focus is on generating profit by terminating the lives of vulnerable children. Women in Las Cruces are safer now that this predatory clinic has closed its doors.”
The abortion industry is hurting elsewhere as the tide of public opinion toward abortion changes in favor of life and abortion rates continue to steadily decline. A new year of pro-life progress started strong with the news that abortion mills in Kentucky and West Virginia had been shuttered.
Read more about the Coalition for Life of Las Cruces and the closure of Whole Woman’s Health of Las Cruces here.
