SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico lawmakers raced against time Friday to pass disputed bills that seek to safeguard abortion rights, offer tax breaks and reduce gun violence in the final hours of a 60-day legislative session.
In the debate in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, the Republicans, who are in the minority, raised a series of objections to a bill that seeks to protect abortion providers and patients from interference by other states, judicial processes or extradition attempts.
In a victory for abortion rights advocates in New Mexico and in states where the procedure is banned, the House carried the bill forward, by a vote of 38 to 30, including both Republicans and Democrats. The governor, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, is expected to sign the rule. The president has already signed a law that blocks local ordinances that prohibit abortion.
Lujan Grisham said Friday it was becoming increasingly important for the state to expand protections for abortion access, along with gender-affirming health care, in the face of litigation backed by Republican-majority states threatening availability, nationwide. of an abortion pill.
“We are expanding those protections for everyone who should be constitutionally protected to make their own decisions (…) in full view, right now, of Republican attorneys general and others who are trying to restrict access to medical abortion,” said the president. . “New Mexico stood up for science, for women.”
Lawmakers have until noon Saturday to send other bills to the governor for her consideration.
Among the measures pending a vote on Friday was gun control, including a ban on firearms in polling places during elections.
Republican and Democratic legislators reached an agreement on a bill that would make it possible to prosecute and impose serious penalties for the deceptive purchase of weapons, that is, when they are acquired legally to later sell them to people who are not authorized to possess them.
It was unclear if other gun bills would make it to the vote, including a proposal to ban assault rifles, a 14-day waiting period on most purchases and an initiative to raise the minimum purchase age for some guns. firearms at age 21. Lujan Grisham last week signed into law a bill that makes it a crime to store firearms in places accessible to children.
In the closing days of the session, the Democratic-majority Assembly passed bills to increase the pay of state elected officials, including the attorney general and secretary of state.
Among the criminal initiatives, the governor signed regulations that establish penalties for minor organized crime and eliminate the option of punishing crimes committed in childhood with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
