Guv advertises state’s safe haven abortion status to lure providers from Texas - By Susan Dunlap, New Mexico Political Report
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is advertising the state’s safe haven status for legal and safe reproductive healthcare to try to lure medical providers from Texas.
Like most states, New Mexico suffers a shortage of medical providers across the state. As part of its effort to address the shortage, the state has deployed a campaign in Texas, advertising the state’s status as a safe-haven state for abortion to encourage providers of all kinds in Texas to consider relocating.
The Free to Provide campaign is not limited to job advertisements for OB-GYN specialists in New Mexico. It contains a job listing that includes hundreds of jobs, from nurse practitioners to paramedics to specialists in other fields of medicine. The jobs are in private practices, hospitals and various clinics.
This comes at a time when providers and former patients in states such as Idaho and Texas have begun to speak out about the difficulties of receiving and delivering care in hospital emergency rooms due to those states’ abortion bans. Many such bans put medical providers into a legal quandary while trying to protect a pregnant patient’s health. A recent congressional report published by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives Energy Committee found that laws in restrictive states have led to a negative impact on patient-provider relationships in states where abortion is restricted or banned. In states such as Texas, state law prohibits providers from counseling patients on abortion as part of the full range of medical options.
The newspaper advertisement, which contains a letter signed by Lujan Grisham, says that providers took a medical oath “with patients—not politicians—in mind.”
“When you pledged to dedicate your lives to medicine, you did so with the understanding that the health and well-being of your patients would always be your priority,” the letter says.
It also enumerates other reasons to move to New Mexico, such as a temperate climate and a state filled with natural beauty. The Free to Provide website boasts additional reasons to live in New Mexico, including its diverse cuisine, lower cost of living, and “rich cultural tapestry.”
The Free to Provide campaign advertised in five major Texas newspapers on Sunday. The state took out a full-page ad in each one. It also paid for six billboards placed around the Houston Medical Center.
In a statement to NM Political Report, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said “People and businesses vote with their feet, and continually they are choosing to move to Texas more than any other state in the country. Governor Lujan Grisham should focus on her state’s rapidly declining population instead of political stunts.”
Electric scooters and bikes get city council’s approval - Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ
Albuquerque residents can now ride e-bikes on Open Space trails and may eventually see electric rental scooters around town thanks to two different pieces of legislation passed by City Council.
After a month-long summer break, city councilors filled much of a 7-hour meeting Monday with debating the e-bike and scooter proposals and upheld a mayoral veto on municipal election changes.
E-BIKES ON OPEN SPACE TRAILS
After a drawn-out debate and more than 20 residents asking the panel to take more time with the proposed ordinance, councilors voted 8-1 to allow electric bikes on both paved and unpaved Open Space trails.
The legislation — sponsored by Councilor Brook Bassan — has received pushback from more than 400 petition signers, asking the council to table it until there is more public input.
Terry Storch, who sent the petition to the council, attended the meeting and told councilors the petition is “not about a ban of e-bikes, this is about voices being heard.”
Vice chair of the Open Space Advisory Board, Donald Meaders, acknowledged that Bassan attended one of the board’s meetings and noted its concerns about the proposal but Meaders still asked the council to “allow time for public input and some studies before this is passed.”
Bassan however said the ordinance has gone through the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee three times and it has had more discussion, evaluation and compromise “than any other bill I have seen thus far.”
“It was deferred at full council so that we could now have more time over the break for people to hear about it and learn more and have more discussions and input and now here we are,” Bassan said. “I don’t think this has been rushed, especially in comparison with other legislation.”
ELECTRIC SCOOTER RENTALS
An ordinance that aims to attract electric scooter and bicycle rental companies by lowering entrance fees passed unanimously.
Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, who sponsored the ordinance change, said the new rates will put Albuquerque on par with other cities that already have electric scooter rentals.
Lime — one of the world’s largest shared electric vehicle companies — has expressed interest in operating in Albuquerque and hopes to bring their scooters to the metro area.
Robert Gardner, Lime’s director of market expansions, told City Desk ABQ the company has been talking with the city for more than a year about a potential partnership. Gardner attended the meeting and told councilors Lime already sees Albuquerque residents opening its app looking for its services in the city and the company wants to give residents what they are looking for.
Fiebelkorn also said technology has come a long way since the last time the city had rental scooters — which was before COVID-19. She said the users will now continue to be charged if the scooters are not returned properly, preventing abandoned scooters from littering the city.
“We want to make sure that it’s for everyone,” Fiebelkorn said. “There are folks in our community that do not have vehicles, that need that last mile to be able to get groceries home from the art station, and I think this will do it.”
MAYOR’S VETO ON COUNCIL’S VOTING CHANGES
On a 5-4 vote, councilors voted to uphold Mayor Tim Keller’s veto of the council’s proposal to change the threshold to win municipal elections.
Keller vetoed earlier this month a proposal that would have made it possible to win a city election with less than 50% of the vote. Councilors originally approved the measure on a 6-3 vote with the intention of sending it to voters in November. The aim was to replace the current majority voting system — which requires a candidate to receive 50% of the total vote in order to win — with a plurality voting system and eliminate run-off elections.
“This veto is a veto of voters,” Council President Dan Lewis said. “I trust the people of Albuquerque. This veto is not a veto against how we do elections, it’s a veto against allowing the people of the city of Albuquerque to be able to have a say.”
Initially, Councilor Klarissa Peña voted in favor of the proposal but voted against a veto override Monday night.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE NEXT MEETING:
WHEN: 5 p.m. Aug. 19
WHERE: Vincent E. Griego Chambers in the Albuquerque Government Center, 1 Civic Plaza NW
VIRTUAL: GOV-TV or on the city’s YouTube channel
WQCC commissioner will abstain from final produced water rule vote - By Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico water board member with ties to the oil and gas industry announced Monday she will abstain from a final vote on statewide rules developing additional uses of oil and gas wastewater.
The Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC), an oft-overlooked body of 13 members tasked with shaping and enforcing state water policy, is reviewing proposed rules to expand uses for oil and gas wastewater.
Currently, there are 12 members, with one vacant seat.
Rulemaking on the issue has been a monthslong process. The commission resumed hearing testimony and cross examination of witnesses supporting or challenging proposed rules on Monday, after a week of testimony in May.
In the opening minutes of the meeting Monday, Commissioner Krista McWilliams stopped short of recusing herself, saying there is no basis for allegations of personal or corporate gain from her position on the WQCC. She said she would listen to hearings and offer her opinions, but she’ll abstain from voting.
“If the commission would allow, I intend to remain a participant in the hearing and remain committed to serve New Mexico,” she said. “However, I do not want to stand in the way of due process. In order to allow science to have its day in court, I will abstain from the final vote.”
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
McWilliams’ statement follows months of questions about unclear disclosure rules for commission members, and a motion for McWilliams to recuse herself filed by an environmental group opposing the rules’ adoption.
In June, Navajo Nation citizens Daniel Tso and Samuel Sage and New Energy Economy, a nonprofit organization opposing the rules, filed a motion requesting McWilliams recuse herself, alleging conflicts of interest with oil and gas interests.
The issue escalated as additional motions were filed in July.
McWilliams called the allegations “baseless” on Monday, further saying that neither she, her husband, nor their Farmington-based oil and gas company LOGOS Energy receive any gain from her sitting on the rulemaking body.
She said she would not receive a financial benefit from the rulemaking, and said that LOGOS Energy or her husband Jay Paul McWilliams had not participated with the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association since 2022.
“Despite my industry background, I remain committed to the Water Quality Act objective of protecting public health and enhancing water quality,” she said. “My obligation is to serve the public interests, not personal or corporate gain.”
She further said a six-year-old video “aimed to inform the public about fracking,” a process of injecting liquid at high pressures for oil and gas instruction, was done on a voluntary basis and had no relation to the rule-making process.
In the video, which is no longer on the website, McWilliams said she supports the controversial drilling practice, saying at one point: “Fracking, it’s a sensitive subject. I get it. But I feel good about fracking.”
Missi Currier, the president and CEO of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry, filed testimony saying that McWilliams did not know the video was still on the nonprofit’s website.
Mariel Nanasi, the executive director for New Energy Economy, told Source NM that McWilliam’s abstention doesn’t go far enough.
“She’s only abstaining from the vote, she’s not abstaining from the deliberation,” Nanasi said, adding that she feels that could taint the commission’s ultimate decision, and could be brought up in an appeal.
Tso echoed those concerns in a call after the hearing, saying he’s concerned her participation will still “slant the final rules.”
No statements from party members or the public were allowed in the hearing, according to the Hearing Officer Felicia Orth, who’s acting as the judge in the matter.
Orth said in the hearing, that she was deferring any ruling on the recusal issue to the commission, and said the issue may be explored by other state agencies. But it appears the issue is closed before the WQCC.
A mirror complaint that New Energy Economy submitted to the State Ethics Commission is part of a separate proceeding, which is not open to the public at this time.
In a copy of McWilliams’ response to the ethics complaint obtained by Source NM, she requested that a hearing be postponed until after the Aug. 5 WQCC proceedings.
WHAT IS PRODUCED WATER?
Oil and gas wastewater, often called produced water, is at the center of the rulemaking.
As New Mexico water sources are expected to become increasingly strained by more demand and shrinking supplies from a hotter, drier climate – the relationship between oil and gas and its wastewater is drawing more public attention to the deliberations.
The state generates billions of gallons of toxic wastewater from oil and gas production. The wastewater is often extremely salty and includes hazardous chemicals used in fracking such as PFAs, arsenic, benzene and more.
Much of the water is currently disposed of by injecting it underground, which has been linked to earthquakes. Some of the wastewater is recycled for further oil drilling.
Currently, there is no approved use for produced water off of the oilfields.
Inside Climate detailed the week’s worth of debate from the hearings in May. Across hours of testimony, New Mexico Environment Department experts proposed using produced water in industrial processes, such as power plant cooling, manufacturing or hydrogen production and developing smaller demonstration projects to study treatments.
Oil and gas industry representatives argued too-restrictive rules, including the proposed rules, will drive companies from New Mexico to other states and environmental groups oppose using the wastewater for industry, citing health and safety concerns.
WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK?
The Water Quality Control Commission is scheduled to hold rulemaking hearings through the end of the week.
The meetings are held in Committee Room 322 in the Roundhouse. Links to a livestream are available online by visiting the Calendar for New Mexico Environment Department, and using the link to attend the webinar. Public comment can be made in person or online.
Local LGBTQ community eyes restrictions in other states, prepares for upcoming election - By Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ. It's republished here with permission.
It had been 20 years since New Mexico’s LGBTQ+ community met for a statewide summit to discuss political strategy, advocacy work and to forge relationships. That changed this past weekend.
About 150 people attended a sold-out summit Aug. 1 to Aug. 3 at the Ramada Plaza, which was organized by Equality New Mexico (EQNM), Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. On the agenda for organizers: Reinvigorate the community and strategize for what they see as a series of political and social fights on the horizon.
“This is a critical time in the LGBTQ movement for equality and justice,” Marshall Martinez said. “For five years in a row, there has been a new record set for the most anti-LGBTQ bills introduced across the country.”
Martinez, the executive director of EQNM, said the queer and transgender community “face unprecedented attacks that are being felt emotionally and physically.” States have restricted gender-affirming care protections and access to reproductive health care, especially abortion, he said.
“Bodily autonomy is an LGBTQ issue, and queer and trans people need access to birth control and abortion care just as much as everybody else,” Martinez said.
In addition to reproductive rights, Martinez said attacks on the LGBTQ+ community include libraries banning books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes and attempts to restrict or ban drag queen performances.
“Let’s be really clear, those proposals are attacking our trans and non-binary siblings across the country,” Martinez said. “Queer and trans people see our right to merely exist under attack daily in the news.”
Amid the backdrop of an upcoming presidential election, summit organizers raised the alarm on states removing people from voter rolls, restricting the hours polls are open and other barriers.
“We have seen consistent attacks on our democracy, especially in the last four years,” Martinez said. “But queer and trans people have always organized to get people to the polls in order to elect the government that will protect us.”
Happily, Martinez said, New Mexico’s legal protections for its citizens at large and the LGBTQ+ community in particular are stronger than in many other states.
“That is because our community is organized,” he said.
New Mexico’s Human Rights Act contains protections for LGBTQ+ people and reproductive and gender-affirming health care. Conversion therapy for minors is prohibited and marriage equality is protected at the state level.
Martinez is concerned, however, about what he said is an effort among some New Mexico politicians to criminalize those experiencing homelessness.
“They want to criminalize people who need access to mental and behavioral health care, and they want to criminalize people who are experiencing addiction. Many are queer and trans people,” he said.
Martinez, who is from Alamogordo, said his career as a community organizer was sparked after a high school suspension for handing out condoms. As a peer educator for safer sex practices, he would carry around a brown paper bag full of condoms in his backpack.
“One day in class, I was giving some to one of my classmates and the teacher saw me and sent me to the principal’s office,” he said. “I was suspended for three days for possession of contraceptives with the intent to distribute.”
Martinez said his mother motivated him to take action, so later in the school year he led students to the superintendent’s office to voice their frustrations.
“There were a number of things we talked about — one of them was that students will have sex and they should have access to condoms,” he said. “I’m very proud to say that students no longer get suspended from school in Alamogordo for having condoms on campus.”
‘MAKE SURE THAT YOU’RE PREPARED’
Over the weekend, participants learned strategies for how to effectively engage with state legislators and city and county officials.
“Make sure that you’re prepared for what lies ahead,” Martinez told attendees. “It’s going to get really hard, but we have always come out of it on the other side — stronger, more powerful and more successful.”
The statewide summit was an annual fixture in the 1990s, led by the Coalition of Equality in NM, now EQNM, and was key to the passage of the state’s original LGBTQ+ non-discrimination law in 2003. Martinez said a lack of funding was the main reason the summit ended until now.
Secretaries of state urge Elon Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading election misinformation on X - By Christine Fernando, Associated Press
Five secretaries of state are urging Elon Musk to fix an AI chatbot on the social media platform X, saying in a letter sent Monday that it has spread election misinformation.
The top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington told Musk that X's AI chatbot, Grok, produced false information about state ballot deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
While Grok is available only to subscribers to the premium versions of X, the misinformation was shared across multiple social media platforms and reached millions of people, according to the letter. The bogus ballot deadline information from the chatbot also referenced Alabama, Indiana, Ohio and Texas, although their secretaries of state did not sign the letter. Grok continued to repeat the false information for 10 days before it was corrected, the secretaries said.
The letter urged X to immediately fix the chatbot "to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year." That would include directing Grok to send users to CanIVote.org, a voting information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State, when asked about U.S. elections.
"In this presidential election year, it is critically important that voters get accurate information on how to exercise their right to vote," Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement. "Voters should reach out to their state or local election officials to find out how, when, and where they can vote."
X did not respond to a request for comment.
Grok debuted last year for X premium and premium plus subscribers and was touted by Musk as a "rebellious" AI chatbot that will answer "spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems."
Social media platforms have faced mounting scrutiny for their role in spreading misinformation, including about elections. The letter also warned that inaccuracies are to be expected for AI products, especially chatbots such as Grok that are based on large language models.
"As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote," the secretaries wrote in the letter.
Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X, watchdog groups have raised concerns over a surge in hate speech and misinformation being amplified on the platform, as well as the reduction of content moderation teams, elimination of misinformation features and censoring of journalists critical of Musk.
Experts say the moves represent a regression from progress made by social media platforms attempting to better combat political disinformation after the 2016 U.S. presidential contest and could precipitate a worsening misinformation landscape ahead of this year's November elections.
Sprawling rural school district hurting as state moves away from coal - By Nicholas Gilmore, Santa Fe New Mexican
This story was originally published by the Santa Fe New Mexican on July 20, 2024. It’s republished here with permission from AP StoryShare.
A school district in San Juan County — small in student population, huge in land area — says it is in a precarious financial position as the Public Service Company of New Mexico transitions from coal-fired power to renewable energy.
Lawmakers and officials with the Central Consolidated School District are calling on the state's biggest utility to live up to the promises of a "just transition" promised in the Energy Transition Act of 2018. The legislation promised replacement power generation to be developed within boundaries of the school district as PNM moved away from coal, long a key economic driver in the area.
The school district, consisting of 15 schools, a technical center and several preschools spread over nearly 3,000 square miles in northwest New Mexico, have complained about funding shortfalls following the closure of San Juan Generating Station, and worry about a future closure of the nearby Four Corners Power Plant. Both have been critical contributors to the school district's tax base.
The district serves about 5,000 students; more than 90% are Native American.
Steve Carlson, the school district's superintendent, recently painted a bleak picture of his district's financial outlook in a sworn statement submitted to the Public Regulation Commission.
"As we strive to rectify disadvantages and to give our students the opportunities that the students of other districts enjoy, we see ourselves facing an uphill battle because we end up using all of our scant resources, including our minimal and dwindling tax revenues and a few years’ worth of long overdue impact aid, just to level the playing field," Carlson wrote.
The school district's tax base is inadequate for its size and needs, he wrote, and administrators are forced to spend state funding to maintain "deteriorating facilities."
About 80% of the district's property tax revenue was generated by a combination of San Juan Generating Station, Four Corners Power Plant and related coal mines, according to his statement, and the district has seen a 700% increase in student homelessness rates since San Juan plant shut down in 2022.
State Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, said Central Consolidated's revenue has relied on on the coal plants for decades, including for bonding capacity.
"With one of the power plants and one of the coal mines gone, their taxable income is almost nothing," Montoya said. "No other school district in the state has that problem."
Montoya is part of a group of state lawmakers attempting overturn a recent decision by the state's Public Regulation Commission, which they believe allows PNM to skirt a requirement in the 2019 Energy Transition Act to locate replacement power projects within the area served by the school district. The decision, they contend, allows the utility's projects to be built elsewhere.
Earlier this month, 15 legislators asked the state Supreme Court to order the commission to enforce provisions of the legislation.
A spokesman for the state agency declined to comment on the challenge to the commission's decision.
In an email, PNM spokeswoman Kelly-Renae Huber wrote PNM "remains fully supportive and compliant with the Energy Transition Act."
"The third-party projects selected through the [Public Regulation Commission] process for San Juan replacement power contained projects located within the [Central Consolidated School District] as well as elsewhere; one of the projects slated for the area subsequently defaulted and the contract was terminated," Huber wrote. "We filed notice of this event with the PRC in January 2023 and discussed it in our ongoing biweekly stakeholder meetings."
In late May, the commission approved the utility's coming power resources, which included solar and battery projects in Bernalillo and Valencia counties, but none in San Juan County, where the 130-megawatt Rockmont solar and storage project was scheduled to be developed.
The utility agreed to develop 430 megawatts of power capacity within school district boundaries to replace the San Juan Generating Station, during negotiations for the Energy Transition Act. So far PNM has developed 200 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts of battery storage in San Juan County, both of which are scheduled to come online in August, according to information provided by Huber.
Some legislators who signed on to the Supreme Court challenge — such as Joanne Ferrary, D-Las Cruces — supported the 2019 legislation. But Ferrary said concerns about the company's actions since the Energy Transition Act was passed prompted her to act.
"We had no choice but to file for the writ of mandamus, since the PRC has failed to hold PNM accountable," Ferrary said in a recent interview.
Huber wrote the utility has committed to include "a CCSD-located [Central Consolidated School District] project in our upcoming resource filing later this year, even if it doesn’t meet the criteria for a lowest-cost portfolio."
Attorneys for San Juan County government echoed the district's concerns, arguing before the commission the
utility holds a significant presence in San Juan County.
"PNM’s replacement resources for the [San Juan Generating Station] impact the employment of thousands of San Juan County residents and the County’s local economy," the county's officials wrote in a request to commissioners to challenge PNM's plan.
New tool launches to offset donor fatigue for reproductive rights aid - By Susan Dunlap, New Mexico Political Report
A new practical support tool for patients traveling to New Mexico and Colorado for an abortion launched as a pilot project connected to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains last week.
Organizers launched a new nonprofit organization called Gloria. It connects abortion patients traveling long distances to Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Denver to a short-term rental host with a vacation rental vacancy. The platform is the first of its kind by coordinating short-term rental properties with abortion patients.
Toshiko Langford, who is the director of impact and analytics for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, founded Gloria. She told NM Political Report that after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, there was an outpouring of financial support but now, two years later, donor fatigue has led to a tapering off of donations.
Adrienne Mansanares, president and chief executive officer of PPRM, told NM Political Report that PPRM saw considerable donations after the Texas six-week gestational ban in 2021 and then a “huge surge” in donations after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. But donors’ sense of urgency in providing funding for travel costs for those traveling long distances for an abortion has tapered off, she said.
Mansanares said grass roots organizations who help with abortion patient traveling are the ones who have experienced the decrease in funding the most. Mansanares said contributions to PPRM are stable, but Planned Parenthood has a decades-long, national brand and a robust development program.
But, even as donor fatigue has set in, New Mexico has, within the Rocky Mountain region, by far the greatest influx of abortion patients coming from out of state, Langford said. In 2023, 14,000 patients traveled from Texas to New Mexico for abortion care. Langford said a large proportion of those 14,000 needed lodging because of how far they are traveling.
Mansanares said PPRM has expanded its services and hours so that a local patient can expect to get the appointment they need without long waits. But still more than half of PPRM abortion care patients are traveling from out of state, so it’s a continuing crisis, Mansanares said.
She said an additional crisis PPRM is battling now is a spike in delayed abortion care, which can lead to more challenges for the patient but it’s also harder on the providers.
“It’s better to get healthcare when the patient wants and needs it and not delay that care,” Mansanares said.
Gloria is also a response to a phenomenon Langford saw on social media platforms shortly after Roe fell. Individuals were offering rides and places to stay but, while it was “a beautiful outpouring of support,” it wasn’t usable by patients, Langford said.
Langford said it became very clear to her there needed to be a way to coordinate that in-kind support so both sides could be vetted to ensure safety for everyone involved.
Langford said Gloria can also help alleviate the decrease in donor funding by providing in-kind donations from short-term rental hosts. She said she’s seen patients forgoing car payments in order to come up with the travel funds necessary but, even then, the patient often doesn’t have the additional resources to pay for lodging.
Langford said she’s seen patients drive 17 hours across the state of Texas and a part of New Mexico to arrive in Albuquerque for an abortion appointment and then turn around and drive those same 17 hours back across the two states to return home.
“So many patients are forgoing basic needs in order to finance their travel as well as the procedure and they’re doing pretty drastic things. We just want to support them,” Langford said.
She said there’s a “huge community” who have resources which have not been tapped into to help patients. Langford said it was in her role at PPRM that she first realized the gap between short-term rental hosts who were offering to lend a night or two stay in a vacant rental property but that there was no infrastructure in place to coordinate the hosts to the patients.
Langford said the host and the patient are connected through a secure app and no personal information is shared. The hosts and the patient do not meet in order to ensure privacy and security. The patient and their families have the entire rental property to themselves during the stay, also to ensure privacy and security, Langford said.
Mansanares said the houses are lovely vacation homes.
The patient is able to stay in a home and that can be helpful, especially when a patient is traveling with small children or other family members. It can also be helpful if the patient has a flight out after a procedural abortion and wants to return to the rental house to relax instead of waiting long hours at the airport for the flight.
Langford called the current roll out a pilot project and said that, so far, there are six hosts on Gloria. The platform is limited to patients who seek services at PPRM clinics in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Denver. But, she said, the goal is to expand not just across the region but nationally. She also hopes to expand so that other abortion clinics can rely on Gloria to direct patients who need lodging when traveling for an abortion. She hopes to begin scaling up the project by October.
Mansanares said another benefit from the creation of Gloria is that its work helps to destigmatize abortion care.
“People in the community have something to give, they want to pitch in but they may not have the funds to donate or they have the funds, but they want to do more. This seeks a solution that’s outside of traditional systems,” she said.
Man and 2 siblings found dead at an Albuquerque home, police say it appears to be a murder-suicide - Associated Press
Three people have been found dead at a southeast Albuquerque home in an apparent murder-suicide, authorities said Monday.
Albuquerque police said it appears a 22-year-old man fatally shot his 20-year-old sister and 17-year-old brother before turning the gun on himself.
Police said the three all had gunshot wounds to the head. A possible motive for the murder-suicide is not immediately known and police weren't releasing the names of the three dead at this time.
"It's a real tragedy," police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said at a news conference.
Police said officers received a call around 11 p.m. Sunday that three people were found unresponsive inside a residence and were later pronounced dead at the scene.
They said the man lived in the home with his younger siblings and his mother, who was out of the house at the time of the shooting.
She discovered the bodies when she returned home and called the police.
If you or someone you know is in crisis – call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline @ 988.