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It’ll be about 18 months before a massive reproductive health care clinic opens in Las Cruces.
But Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other officials hoped to send a message on Sept. 5 about abortion access in New Mexico: Simply put, that New Mexico is a place investing in reproductive health – and the facility in Las Cruces is proof.
“We have to teach the rest of America (reproductive health) is primary care,” Lujan Grisham said. “Let New Mexico be a beacon of light.”
Lujan Grisham was joined by dozens of local officials and officials from northern New Mexico in celebrating the groundbreaking of a long-promised reproductive health care center.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M.; Las Cruces city councilors Becky Corran, Cassie McClure and Johana Bencomo; and Doña Ana County Commissioners Manuel Sanchez and Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez, joined the governor in the groundbreaking.
“Instead of limiting health care access, what we’re doing here today in this big stretch from the Permian Basin all the way to the Arizona border is expanding reproductive health access for everybody,” Vasquez said.
“This clinic here will save lives,” he added. “And it will defend reproductive freedom.”
Thursday’s groundbreaking follows a changing landscape for reproductive health in New Mexico.
After the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended federal abortion protections in its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, more clinics have opened in New Mexico as neighboring states with Republican-led legislatures enacted laws that severely limit abortion or ban it outright.
Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Farmington have seen new clinics installed during that time. However, none have received more press and attention than the governor’s promised $10 million facility in Las Cruces.
Shortly after the Dobbs decision, Lujan Grisham announced the project in August 2022 to increase reproductive health care in New Mexico.
Officials have pitched the facility as being primarily for New Mexicans but acknowledged that the Center – as with many reproductive care locations in New Mexico – would be heavily used by residents of Texas, where abortion is illegal in almost all cases.
The project languished behind closed doors until the University of New Mexico purchased land adjacent to MountainView Regional Medical Center in May 2023.
In a news release, the university described the Center as a “community-advised, full spectrum, reproductive health care center” that will “serve the needs of thousands of individuals living in southern New Mexico who have lacked access to basic reproductive health care for decades.”
“The high costs of health care, long distances to providers, lack of public transportation, insufficient or complete lack of insurance coverage, few trusted specialists in a given area, limited knowledge about where to access care, and shame and stigma surrounding reproductive health care are just some of the barriers to accessing care that New Mexicans have identified,” the release continued.
Lujan Grisham credited UNM Health Science Center interim director Dr. Mike Richards with finding a location for the clinic. Richards outlined some of the services and the timeline for opening the facility.
A news release put out before the event began listed the services the center will offer:
According to Richards, the clinic will be about 8,000 square feet and serve 1,000 patients each year.
Richards said architectural plans were being completed, that a contractor had been identified and that the facility would be opened in about 12 to 18 months.
“This project is well underway at this point,” Richards said, adding, “When we talk about building clinics something complete in (about) a year, sounds like a long time, but in the world of health care, that's actually a pretty accelerated process.”
Lujan Grisham suggested during the event that she wanted the center to open sooner.
“I’m still going to be governor, by God, by the time we open those doors, or else,” Lujan Grisham said.
