Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Opposition is unanimous from Curry and Roosevelt county’s all-Republican state legislators to pending bills related to abortion and gender-affirming medical treatment, and regulation of firearms.
As of Thursday, the House had not taken a floor vote on House Bill 7, which would require appropriate health care providers in the state to perform abortions and other reproductive services, along with sex-change care when requested. It had been on the House calendar for three days.
Left up to the Curry and Roosevelt delegation, however, the bill would not stand a chance.
“HB 7 is overreaching and extremely troubling,” Sen. Stuart Ingle, District 27, wrote in an email. “This is a case where the government is mandating behavior and speech, which is unconstitutional. This legislation is dangerous for every New Mexican.
“If anyone is thought to be interfering with a person’s access to an abortion or gender-affirming care,” Ingle added. “they are subject to litigation and $5,000 in fines. The only people who benefit from this bill are trial lawyers.”
District 27 includes parts of Curry, Roosevelt, De Baca, Lea and Chaves counties.
Sen. Pat Woods, District 7, emailed, “Simply put, if your local government doesn’t agree with Democratic majority on abortion then the state of NM will sue you into submission, kind of like dictatorship saying you are not allowed to have values different than theirs. Happens in North Korea all the time.”
Senate District 7 includes parts of Curry, Quay and Union counties.
Freshman Rep. Andrea Reeb, District 64, had one issue with HB7.
“My issue with that bill is that it doesn’t require parent notification if a child is seeking an abortion or has a gender issue,” she wrote in email. “I will oppose this bill.”
Proposed legislation related to regulating firearms would, among other things:
• Prohibit sales of assault weapons and attachments or automatic weapons,
• Prohibit most persons under 18 from possessing or carrying firearms and persons under 21 from purchasing them,
• Make it unlawful to possess high-capacity ammunition magazines,
• Make it a felony for a convicted felon to own firearms,
• Impose a 14-day waiting period to purchase firearms.
“These bills punish responsible and law-abiding New Mexicans,” Ingle wrote in an email. “I have always supported our right to keep and bear arms and will vote against any legislation that infringes on that right.”
Reeb noted that one bill requiring safe storage of firearms to keep them away from minors passed the House “on a party line vote”
The bill, HB9, passed by a vote of 39 to 32. Reeb, Chatfield and Zamora voted against the bill.
In general, Reeb said, “On the gun bills, I am opposing them because of the second amendment, and they all have issues.”
Woods wrote that bills aimed at “curbing gun violence” should take a back seat to those that “curb violent crime.”
Woods wondered whether gun-control advocates “advertise on the outside of their homes that there are no guns readily available for personal protection.”
The advertising, he wrote, could also say, “We will call 911 if you criminals give us the chance.”
Woods noted a Walmart store closing in southeast Albuquerque.
“I wonder if shoplifting had anything to do with that,” he wrote.
In December, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon announced shoplifting and “retail theft” were a factor in considering the closing of several Walmart stores nationwide.
The closing of the Albuquerque store on San Mateo near Central, which the Albuquerque Journal reported on Feb. 8, was due to the store “not performing as well as the company hoped,” according to a Walmart spokesperson.
