Despite COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions, New Mexico allows out-of-state women to come for abortions

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has issued a stay at home order for state residents and has placed restrictions on businesses due to COVID-19. She has also issued a 14-day mandatory quarantine for people traveling from out of state. Despite this, abortion facilities which have shut down due to COVID-19 in El Paso, Texas, are allegedly referring patients across the state border into New Mexico.

Gov. Grisham issued an amendment to the period of mandatory self-quarantine for non-residents traveling to the state, which originally said that certain individuals who test negative for COVID within 72 hours of arrival into New Mexico were exempt from the quarantine. That exemption will no longer apply. El Paso has reported all-time high COVID-19 cases, with a record 838 cases reported on October 16 alone. New Mexico saw 518 new cases on Monday.

“Starting October 14th, just a day after Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a medical response team to El Paso for a sudden and overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases, multiple sources, from abortion facility security guards to women seeking abortions, have confirmed that while El Paso abortion centers are closed women are being referred to travel from El Paso Texas to Albuquerque abortion facilities despite the recent outbreak,” said Mark Caveliere of the Southwest Coalition For Life, according to an article from pro-life group Abortion on Trial.

While the 14-day travel quarantine in New Mexico allows travels to break quarantine for medical care, abortion is not health care. Abortion is the intentional death of an innocent human being that offers no health benefits to the mother that preterm delivery can’t provide more quickly and safely. If the COVID-19 numbers are so high in Texas that it has closed El Paso abortion businesses, women seeking abortions should not then be sent to New Mexico where there is a mandatory quarantine.

Abortion carries risks to a woman’s health that could necessitate emergency room treatment. One Albuquerque abortion business sent 17 women to the hospital in less than four years’ time, according to Abortion on Trial. Women traveling to New Mexico for an abortion put the abortion business staff and patients at risk of exposure to COVID-19, as well as staff at the hotel where they are staying for the duration of their abortions, and possibly the staff and patients at the local hospital should emergency treatment for abortion complications be required.

READ: SHOCK: Documents from New Mexico facility reveal dozens of late-term, healthy babies aborted daily

“There is an increased need for Emergency Room Services and ICU beds, our hospitals cannot be overburdened by non residents who are injured at facilities like Southwestern Women’s Options [in Albuquerque] during this crucial time,” said attorney Mike Seibel, as quoted by Abortion on Trial. “With the extensive list of people being injured at SWO, we need orders in place not to consume unnecessary resources.”

While women seeking abortions will be allowed to travel and break quarantine, pregnant women who do not want an abortion are being instructed to alter their birth plans to make room at hospitals for COVID patients. Women may be pressured to have their babies at home, which can be risky for both mother and child. But for the abortion industry, it’s business as usual.

“Governor, I hope you remain consistent and ensure that pregnant women are given the care they need and deserve,” Dominique Davis of New Mexico’s Project Defending Life posted on social media. “You ensured that women were able to access abortion in NM at the height of the pandemic. You let hundreds travel from out of state to obtain one. Make maternal health care a priority too.”

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