Santa Fe, NM – In the fight to ensure women have access to reproductive choice, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez argued for the state in today’s Supreme Court oral arguments in the case of State of New Mexico ex rel. Torrez v. Board of County Commissioners for Lea County.
“Women in every community in New Mexico have a state constitutional right to access reproductive healthcare and today, on the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States House of Representatives, they are looking to this Court for reassurance that when they exercise that right they are entitled to equal treatment under the law.” said AG Torrez. “The Supreme Court should nullify the ordinances at issue in this case and prohibit their enforcement, not only because they are preempted by state law but because they constitute a form of gender based discrimination and are unconstitutional under the Equal Rights Amendment to Article II, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution.”
The argument focused largely on the questions on whether the local ordinances enacted by the counties and municipalities violated the state constitution and state statutes, particularly whether HB 7 (2023) explicitly limits these ordinances.
The Supreme Court is currently in recess as they contemplate their decision.
