New Mexico Is a “Safe Haven” for Abortion Between Texas and Arizona

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has declared the state a “reproductive safe haven” between Arizona to the west, and Texas to the east. Already, she says, New Mexico’s few abortion clinics are seeing an influx of patients from outside its borders. “When you are a safe-haven state,” she says, “you put real stress on [the] current provider system.” Lujan Grisham speaks with David Remnick about her executive order—issued days after the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs—to prevent the extradition of abortion providers, a request that she expects to see from Texas law enforcement. Dobbs puts states at odds over one of the contentious issues of our time. “They’ve invited states now to fight with each other, sue each other,” she says; this is “the most despicable and horrible aspect, frankly, of this particular decision.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.4	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:13.4	In the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, many states have issued abortion
0:18.6	bands and restrictions, like the Ohio law that's become infamous, forcing a 10-year-old
0:24.0	victim of rape to travel out of state.
0:27.1	At the same time, many governors and legislatures have acted to protect reproductive rights,
0:32.2	and with no federal law above them, we may see neighboring states in direct conflict
0:38.0	over the right to travel for an abortion.
0:40.3	New Mexico's governor, Michelle Luhan Grisham, has declared her state a reproductive safe
0:45.3	haven between Arizona and Texas.
0:48.6	Days after the DOBS decision, she issued an executive order to protect New Mexico's abortion
0:53.6	providers from legal action by those other states.
0:57.5	Luhan Grisham represented New Mexico in the Congress for three terms, and she was elected
1:01.7	governor in 2018.
1:04.7	Governor, I think we knew that the decision from the Supreme Court was coming once the
1:10.2	opinion leaked, but I would love to know what your reaction was on the day it did come
1:16.4	out.
1:17.4	And what has it been like in your office?
1:19.9	Well, I think like most Americans, and polling is certainly showing that, I woke up to that
1:28.0	decision, and you're sick to your stomach.
1:31.2	Because we humans hang on to whatever piece of potential hope.
1:37.1	But frankly, we've been preparing for that ultimate decision by this Supreme Court in
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.