This should come as a surprise to no one.
Right there with them
Though abortions among residents are down the number of out-of-state women traveling to New Mexico for abortions has grown significantly over the past three years.
According to state Department of Health data, about 20 percent of the roughly 4,500 abortions performed in New Mexico in 2014 involved women from out of state, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Reports suggest that number can be attributed to New Mexico’s few restrictions on abortion.
New Mexico hasn’t passed an abortion law in 16 years and is one of seven states that permits abortions at any stage in a pregnancy.
Comparatively, neighboring Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma each adopted 10 or more abortion restrictions from 2011 to 2015.
Texas women had nearly 9,000 fewer abortions in the first full year since those restrictions were put into place.
Just as a reminder, Texas Republicans passed HB2 on the (false) grounds that all those requirements and restrictions would make abortion safer for women. The state then argued in court that all of the clinics that would or did close as a result did not present an undue burden for women who sought abortions because the ones in the west could just go to New Mexico, which didn’t have all of those allegedly safety-enhancing (and clinic-closing) rules. The numbers bear that out. Funny how these things work, isn’t it? The Press has more.