NM group plans to continue push for referendum

Efforts to usurp recently passed state laws regarding health care and aspects of voting continue. That’s despite a ruling by a state judge that New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver may block referendums on the laws.

The laws in question -- House Bills 4, 7 and 207 along with Senate Bills 13, 180 and 397 -- are the subject of a push by a group named “Better Together New Mexico” that seeks to put the measures before state voters.

All six of the measures became law last week.

Among other issues, the Better Together group is concerned minors can receive abortions and gender-transformation procedures without parental consent.

“Anyone … can direct a minor to abortion or transgender interventions, both surgical and chemical without parental notification,” reads one of the statements in advertisements from “Better Together New Mexico.”

The advertisement claims SB397 would allow “school-based clinics … authority to provide medications or refer for surgeries including abortion and transgender procedure on minors without parental notification.”

“We never got a solid answer on that, the law does not specify this,” Logan Brown said regarding a minimum age or parental/guardian consent.

Brown is a Roosevelt County resident who continues to seek signatures on the petitions calling for a referendum on the laws in question.

Two New Mexico attorneys agree Brown’s reading of the new laws regarding parental consent is correct.

“No such requirement here in New Mexico. They repealed the 1969 abortion ban in 2021 in preparation of Roe (Roe vs. Wade) being overturned, but we never required parental consent,” said Jennifer Burrill of Santa Fe who formerly lived in Clovis.

Burrill said New Mexico does not have any of the major types of abortion restrictions.

“Such as waiting periods, mandated parental involvement or limitations on publicly funded abortions,” Burrill said.

That’s confirmed by Portales attorney Eric Dixon.

“You can’t deny, restrict or refuse anyone’s right to reproductive health care,” he said. The parent/child relationship is a federally protected relationship in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

“There are significant constitutional issues allowing children to engage in these activities, not seeking parental consent.

“If a parent came to me regarding their child being given medical or surgical care without the consent of the parent, I would advise the parent that the provider would potentially have civil liability because there was no parental consent,” Dixon said.

Comment from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham came via Press Secretary Caroline Sweeney.

“Parental consent is not required because the legislature didn’t put a consent requirement in the statute,” Sweeney wrote in an email.

But Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, who helped author HB7, said concerns raised by the Better Together group are unfounded.

“I don’t know where this comes from. It’s just fear,” she said.

She said HB7 makes sure that people have age-appropriate care, that their health care is in the hands of medical professionals, not politicians.

“It’s always about having medical professionals guide the process. Everything is age appropriate for the patient,” Serrato said.

“Drastic surgeries, that’s not the standard of care for kids. That’s not the medical standard,” she said.

“Much of the time it’s about seeing a therapist. Learning what this person is feeling. It’s more about making people feel comfortable in their own skin.”

Serrato said there are no parental consent laws in New Mexico. If a physician is concerned about what is happening with a patient and a medical procedure, concerned for a patient’s well-being, they have to inform law enforcement just like any health care provider, she said.

“HB7 requires following Medical Standards of Care,” she said. “We (state legislators) don’t come up with laws that govern standards of care,” Serrato said.

Brown said the issue of whether the New Mexico secretary of state has the right to deny petitions is in court now.