ALBUQUERQUE, NM– New Mexico Alliance for Life (NMAFL) and a state senator today condemned the introduction of
SB 282, which if made law would force Christians to refer for abortions and force religiously-affiliated hospitals to perform abortions.
“State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino’s pro-abortion extremism is now out in the open,” said NMAFL Executive Director Elisa Martinez. “It was bad enough when Senator Ortiz y Pino used his Catholic faith to justify abortion until the day of birth. Now he wants to force health care providers, including those of his own Catholic faith, to violate their consciences by participating in abortion.”
“The only reason we still have abortion up to the day of birth today in New Mexico is because ‘Catholic’ Democrat legislators support it and because Catholic leaders are silent,” said state Senator Bill Sharer, a Republican and practicing Catholic. “Senate bill 282 will require Catholic healthcare providers to commit mortal sins, which should horrify anyone of good conscience.”
If signed into law, SB 282 will repeal New Mexico state exemptions for persons and institutions with “moral or religious” objections to abortion. The bill states, “notwithstanding the provisions of any other state law, a hospital shall not refuse to provide a reproductive health service to a patient if withholding the reproductive health service would result in or prolong a serious risk to the patient’s life or health; and where a failure to provide the reproductive health service would violate the medical standard of care owed the patient.”
“New Mexico statute
30-5-2 protects hospitals and individuals from participating in abortion if they have a moral or religious objection,” said Martinez. “SB 282 is actually a double attack – it forces pro-life medical professionals to participate in abortion, and its definitions of ‘standard of care’ and health of the mother are so broad so as to have no meaningful limitations.”
In addition to violating the First Amendment’s right to religious freedom from government coercion, SB 282 violates the Weldon Amendment, according to Martinez and Sharer.
The Amendment is a federal law that protects health care providers from being forced to provide abortions.
According to Martinez, SB 282 “will force half or more of the health care professionals to leave their practice or lose their license for violating state law.” She accused Ortiz y Pino of misleading his fellow legislators, noting that SB 282 “does not refer to the exemption statute at all, meaning that even pro-life legislators could vote for this life-ending bill without knowing they are repealing the basic constitutional right to religious liberty.”
