New Mexico Supreme Court strikes down local abortion restrictions

By Jasper Ward

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against several local ordinances in the state that aim to restrict distribution of the abortion pill.

In a unanimous opinion, the court said the ordinances invade the legislature's authority to regulate reproductive care.

"Our legislature granted to counties and municipalities all powers and duties not inconsistent with the laws of New Mexico. The Ordinances violate this core precept and invade the legislature’s authority to regulate access to and provision of reproductive healthcare," the court wrote in its opinion by Justice C. Shannon Bacon.

It declined to address whether the ordinances violated the state's constitutional protections.

Abortion is legal in New Mexico, which has become a destination for women seeking abortions from Texas and other states that have banned the procedure following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2022 ending its recognition of a woman's constitutional right to abortion.

Following that ruling, New Mexico's Roosevelt and Lea Counties and the towns of Clovis and Hobbs, all on the Texas border, passed ordinances seeking to stop abortion clinics from receiving or sending mifepristone, a pill taken with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortion, and other abortion-related materials in the mail. Medication abortions account for more than half of all U.S. abortions.

The ordinances invoked the federal Comstock Act, a 19th century law against mailing abortifacients, which are drugs that induce abortion, and said that clinics must comply with the law.

Under Roosevelt County's ordinance, any person other than a government employee could bring a civil lawsuit and seek damages of at least $100,000 for each violation of the Comstock Act.

The New Mexico Supreme Court admonished this, saying that creating a private right of action and damages award was "clearly intended to punish protected conduct."

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Frank McGurty and Sonali Paul)

((Jasper.Ward@thomsonreuters.com;))