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Public records show that abortion rights opponents in Texas dictated the terms and pressured municipal officials in New Mexico to pass ordinances restricting clinics, likely in line with larger legislation. It was said to be part of a strategic strategy.
Emails show that former Texas Attorney General Jonathan Mitchell and Mark Lee Dixon, founder of the Sanctuary Cities for Unborn Child initiative, have agreed to move the state despite warnings and hesitation from local officials. have been shown to be successful in influencing rural local governments.
In late 2022 and early 2023, the New Mexico cities of Clovis and Hobbs will violate the Comstock Act of 1873, a previously vague federal law that prohibits mailing abortion pills and abortion-related materials to people. They passed an ordinance saying they had no rights. It was later joined by Eunice and Edgewood counties, Roosevelt and Lee counties.
There are some differences between the six ordinances. Lee County ordinances provide for fines for violations. Roosevelt County and Edgewood ordinances allow private citizens to sue and win monetary damages. And the Clovis, Hobbs, and Eunice ordinance imposes new licensing requirements on abortion clinics.
hobbes Ordinance No. 1147 was passed on November 7, 2022.
lee county Ordinance No. 99 was passed on December 8, 2022.
clovis Ordinance No. 2184-2022 was passed on January 5, 2023.
roosevelt county Passed Ordinance 2023-01 on January 10, 2023.
Eunice Ordinance No. 561 was passed on January 23, 2023.
edgewood Passed Ordinance 2023-02 on April 26, 2023.
Emails obtained through a public records request show Mitchell and Dixon are lobbying local New Mexico governments to propose versions of the ordinance.
A nonprofit called Democracy Forward brought the email to light. SOURCE New Mexico We independently verified the records through interviews with local officials and our own records requests.
Email also shows influence and control. Mitchell required that changes to the Clovis ordinance be approved by him, provided free legal advice to Eunice on the ordinance amendments, and Dixon dictated the language of the Hobbs ordinance.
“It's not unusual for information to be provided to us,” Hobbs Mayor Ed Cobb said in a phone interview, adding that the city has received input from outside counsel on other ordinances in the past. he added.
“It doesn't necessarily mean copy and paste, but it's not prohibited,” Cobb said.
The ordinance is currently being challenged in the New Mexico Supreme Court. The ordinance creates regulatory hurdles for abortion clinics by prohibiting medical abortion drugs from being shipped by mail from other states. And the 2023 law gives states, rather than local governments, the final say on reproductive health care.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, a Democrat, is prosecuting the case against local governments. She is asking the judge to invalidate the ordinance and set legal precedent to ensure the right to abortion under the New Mexico Constitution.
As of Monday morning, the justices had not yet issued a ruling.
According to court filings, Mitchell relies on federal law that supersedes both state law and the New Mexico Constitution.
Mitchell said. nation Regardless of what the New Mexico judge decides, the legal challenge will accelerate the goal of putting Comstock before the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This is the endgame,” said Joe Gaeta, director of oversight and engagement at Democracy Forward and one of the first lawyers to obtain the records.
Legal experts say Comstock is a key figure in the anti-abortion movement's push for domestic regulation.
Democracy Forward has been tracking the far-right legalization movement, which has clashed with Mr. Mitchell in courtrooms in Texas and other states. In 2023, the organization highlighted his efforts as part of a “city-by-city campaign to ban abortion.”
state newsroom Since the decision was overturned, Roe vs. Wade Anti-abortion rights activists in the May 2022 leak have flooded state legislatures and city governments with proposals to criminalize abortion or add burdensome regulations.
Neither Mitchell nor Dixon responded to multiple requests for comment submitted over several weeks.
“I should have been involved.”
Before the ordinance was passed, Mitchell argued in court that Edgewood, Clovis, Hobbs and Eunice could prevent abortion clinics from operating in their cities if they adopted the measure. I promised to act as his agent.
Some of these communities, including city and county officials, cautioned against getting drawn into this fight over abortion at the urging of Mitchell and Dixon.
“Oh, Miranta. I wish the county attorney would sit down and let us know that they don't have the legal authority to do that,” Key County Clerk Ellen White said on September 19, 2022. wrote in an email to Roosevelt County.
Reached by phone, White said, “I never thought it was the county commission's job to address this issue.'' She declined further comment.
Two attorneys for Hobbs and one attorney for Clovis, as well as Hobbs' commissioners, also questioned the legality of the ordinance, records show.
Clovis does not have an in-house attorney, but instead contracts with a private attorney. Jared Morris said he represents the city on “most things,” but not on the abortion ordinance.
Morris said in an interview that he had “no involvement whatsoever” in the ordinance.
“[Mitchell and Dixon]already have this ordinance in place, they have drafted it, and their MO is to submit it to these governing bodies, county and city commissions, and typically have in-house counsel. “This is to avoid intervention,” he said. “So that’s how it worked out here.”
However, the Clovis City Charter requires the city attorney to prepare all ordinances.
“My interpretation is I should have been drafted,” Morris said.
It's strange that Mitchell has control over the wording of the ordinance, but Morris acknowledged that doesn't necessarily mean the ordinance itself is invalid.
For Democracy Advancement Gaeta, the most startling revelation on record was the manipulated emotional display of certain Clovis officials.
Morris said in an Oct. 13, 2022 email to commissioners that any changes would have to be approved by Mitchell in Texas.
“The Mayor was told last night that in order to maintain a free defense, all changes to the ordinance, no matter how minor, must be approved by Jonathan Mitchell,” he wrote.
Five days later, Clovis Commissioner Megan Parra noticed “extreme editing” between the two different versions and expressed concern about Dixon and Mitchell's motives in an email.
“I was told that Jonathan Mitchell approved all the edits. Why?” Parra wrote. “I feel like they have something else going on and they don’t care about what our ordinances are, they just want to stick their noses at us and pass things. Is there some other motive? I feel like a pawn in a game, but I don't know the rules of the game or what the game ultimately wants.”
Parra did not respond to requests for comment.
And when commissioners expressed a desire to add an exception to the ordinance for survivors of rape and incest, Clovis Mayor Michael Morris (no relation to the attorney) wrote: I support you. ”
Clovis' mayor did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.
Meanwhile, Hobbs Mayor Cobb said that although Dixon offered Mitchell free legal representation, neither the commission nor the city's legal team have ever had an attorney-client relationship. Ta.
“We have never formally engaged with Mr. Mitchell, although he has offered to represent the city and provided us with some information,” Cobb said. “He didn't come here and tell us what to do. That's the bottom line.”
Cobb said that although Mitchell commented on the draft, the mayor never saw the draft directly from Mitchell and that Mitchell “did not participate in any discussions that I had with city staff.” Ta.
But the emails show Hobbs officials respected the views of abortion rights opponents in Texas.
In an Oct. 2, 2022 email to Hobbs' former city attorney, Mitchell wrote, “I am attaching the Hobbs ordinance, as amended along the lines we discussed,” adding that Dixon said, “This I signed the version,” he added.
Austin Fisher is a journalist based in Santa Fe. He has worked for newspapers in New Mexico and his home state of Kansas, including the Topeka Capital Journal, Garden City Telegram, Rio Grande SUN, and Santa Fe Reporter. Since beginning her full-time reporting career in 2015, she has aimed to use journalism to elevate voices not typically heard in public discussions about economic inequality, policing, and environmental racism.
