SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Albuquerque Set to Vote on Landmark Abortion Ban
Notorious Operation Rescue behind ordinance calling for 20-week ban with narrow exceptions
Nov 17, 2013
Voters in Albuquerque will head to the polls for a special election on Tuesday to decide whether to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
If it passes, Albuquerque will be the first city in the nation to enact a 20-week ban.
The municipal ordinance, as the Los Angeles Times notes, would "have statewide impact because the only late-term abortion providers in the largely rural state are in Albuquerque."
As Salon reported, "It should also be noted that the measure, called the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, is based on medically refuted pseudoscience about fetal pain."
The ordinance, which voters will be able to read in its entirety, has no exceptions for rape, incest, deformities, or "psychological or emotional conditions" suffered by the pregnant woman.
As Ms. Magazine noted, "Only about 1 percent of abortions take place after 20 weeks, and the vast majority of those are due to fetal abnormalities. Comprehensive fetal testing that can reveal major birth defects such as brain malformations and missing organs aren't usually performed until just before 20 weeks into a pregnancy."
NARAL Pro-Choice America said the proposed ban is "part of a larger strategy to criminalize abortion."
"It is a new strategy," conceded Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group that helped get the measure on the Albuquerque ballot and moved its aggressive campaigning to New Mexico after the assassination of Dr. Tiller, whom they had targeted with their activism. "There is more than one way to close an abortion clinic."
Reproductive rights groups have been sounding alarm over the potential threat the ban would bring to women's healthcare.
"This measure will put politics into the personal, complex, health care decisions that belong to New Mexican women and their doctors," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement.
In a similar statement, Vicki Cowart, Planned Parenthood New Mexico CEO, said, "When a woman seeks an abortion later in pregnancy, it's often the result of heartbreaking and unusual circumstances--the kind of situation where she and her doctor should have every medical option available."
Efforts the one in Albuquerque are a "deliberate effort to overturn Roe v Wade" that "have nothing to do with protecting women," Cowart continued. "They will not promote health care. They are dangerous, they are over-reaching, and women are already paying the price in states where they have been enacted."
___________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Voters in Albuquerque will head to the polls for a special election on Tuesday to decide whether to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
If it passes, Albuquerque will be the first city in the nation to enact a 20-week ban.
The municipal ordinance, as the Los Angeles Times notes, would "have statewide impact because the only late-term abortion providers in the largely rural state are in Albuquerque."
As Salon reported, "It should also be noted that the measure, called the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, is based on medically refuted pseudoscience about fetal pain."
The ordinance, which voters will be able to read in its entirety, has no exceptions for rape, incest, deformities, or "psychological or emotional conditions" suffered by the pregnant woman.
As Ms. Magazine noted, "Only about 1 percent of abortions take place after 20 weeks, and the vast majority of those are due to fetal abnormalities. Comprehensive fetal testing that can reveal major birth defects such as brain malformations and missing organs aren't usually performed until just before 20 weeks into a pregnancy."
NARAL Pro-Choice America said the proposed ban is "part of a larger strategy to criminalize abortion."
"It is a new strategy," conceded Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group that helped get the measure on the Albuquerque ballot and moved its aggressive campaigning to New Mexico after the assassination of Dr. Tiller, whom they had targeted with their activism. "There is more than one way to close an abortion clinic."
Reproductive rights groups have been sounding alarm over the potential threat the ban would bring to women's healthcare.
"This measure will put politics into the personal, complex, health care decisions that belong to New Mexican women and their doctors," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement.
In a similar statement, Vicki Cowart, Planned Parenthood New Mexico CEO, said, "When a woman seeks an abortion later in pregnancy, it's often the result of heartbreaking and unusual circumstances--the kind of situation where she and her doctor should have every medical option available."
Efforts the one in Albuquerque are a "deliberate effort to overturn Roe v Wade" that "have nothing to do with protecting women," Cowart continued. "They will not promote health care. They are dangerous, they are over-reaching, and women are already paying the price in states where they have been enacted."
___________________
Voters in Albuquerque will head to the polls for a special election on Tuesday to decide whether to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
If it passes, Albuquerque will be the first city in the nation to enact a 20-week ban.
The municipal ordinance, as the Los Angeles Times notes, would "have statewide impact because the only late-term abortion providers in the largely rural state are in Albuquerque."
As Salon reported, "It should also be noted that the measure, called the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, is based on medically refuted pseudoscience about fetal pain."
The ordinance, which voters will be able to read in its entirety, has no exceptions for rape, incest, deformities, or "psychological or emotional conditions" suffered by the pregnant woman.
As Ms. Magazine noted, "Only about 1 percent of abortions take place after 20 weeks, and the vast majority of those are due to fetal abnormalities. Comprehensive fetal testing that can reveal major birth defects such as brain malformations and missing organs aren't usually performed until just before 20 weeks into a pregnancy."
NARAL Pro-Choice America said the proposed ban is "part of a larger strategy to criminalize abortion."
"It is a new strategy," conceded Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group that helped get the measure on the Albuquerque ballot and moved its aggressive campaigning to New Mexico after the assassination of Dr. Tiller, whom they had targeted with their activism. "There is more than one way to close an abortion clinic."
Reproductive rights groups have been sounding alarm over the potential threat the ban would bring to women's healthcare.
"This measure will put politics into the personal, complex, health care decisions that belong to New Mexican women and their doctors," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said in a statement.
In a similar statement, Vicki Cowart, Planned Parenthood New Mexico CEO, said, "When a woman seeks an abortion later in pregnancy, it's often the result of heartbreaking and unusual circumstances--the kind of situation where she and her doctor should have every medical option available."
Efforts the one in Albuquerque are a "deliberate effort to overturn Roe v Wade" that "have nothing to do with protecting women," Cowart continued. "They will not promote health care. They are dangerous, they are over-reaching, and women are already paying the price in states where they have been enacted."
___________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.