A Letter to the Governor and the Health Secretary
By Vince Torres, President & Executive Director
This week, Kansas Family Voice of New Mexico® partnered with Right to Life Committee of New Mexico and New Mexico Alliance for Life in sending a letter to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Secretary of Health Kathy Kunkel. The purpose of the letter was to raise objections to the continuation of elective abortions taking place across the state despite the Governor’s directive prohibiting non-essential health care services, procedures, and surgeries. The letter also raised concerns about the influx of women from other states and countries coming to New Mexico to obtain abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic—increasing the potential spread of the virus in our state.
As stated in the letter, despite calls from the Governor to lessen demands on our health care system for services needed by those who are ill or at increased risk, New Mexico’s abortion industry continues to operate and deplete sorely needed medical equipment and supplies. Rather than joining healthcare providers in donating PPE and equipment to COVID-19 response, the abortion industry has instead elected to exploit the pandemic and the anxiety of women and families by continuing to promote elective abortions in communities across our state.
As for the Governor and her Administration—they appear to be complicit in these activities and, sadly, all too willing to risk equipment and supply shortages, and the potential spread of COVID-19 across state lines to appease the financial interests of the abortion industry. According to sources, the response from the Governor’s office so far has been that abortions are not elective surgeries and abortion clinics will not close.
Think about it—while local New Mexico small businesses shut their doors, the Governor has ensured that Planned Parenthood remains “open for business.”
We have posed these questions to the Governor:
- While your administration is in a race to “save lives,” why are you are allowing New Mexico’s abortion industry to continue to take the lives of innocent preborn children?
- While surgery centers and medical professionals postpone elective and diagnostic procedures at your directive, why are abortion centers allowed to churn out elective surgical and chemical abortions on demand?
- And while you demand that New Mexicans stay at home and avoid travel to curb the spread of COVID-19, why are you allowing women from all over the country and even the world to come to New Mexico to obtain abortions, putting us at greater risk for transmission across state lines?
The Governor has publicly stated, “we all have to do our part” to prevent the spread of COVID-19, to “flatten the curve,” to save lives, and to ease the burden on our healthcare system.
One final question for the Governor—why is the abortion industry always exempt from these rules?
It is time for New Mexico leaders to put a stop to the abortion lobby’s successful push to be the exception to every rule. The abortion industry constantly argues that they should not have to follow the medical standards of care required for other outpatient surgical centers. Now, during a worldwide pandemic, they continue to terminate lives for profit while the rest of us sacrifice and fight to save them.
Governor Lujan Grisham—you have the power to protect us from the abortion lobby. Please do it.
(To read the letter to the Governor and the Secretary, please click here.)