New Mexico’s Democrat governor sneaks $10 million for abortion center into spending bill – LifeSite
(LifeSiteNews) — New Mexico’s governor wants taxpayers to shell out $10 million to build yet another abortion facility in the state.
It is the latest move by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to ensure women can easily kill their preborn babies in the state. She signed legislation in 2023 that said the state and its entities could not interfere with people who want to kill their babies or obtain harmful transgender drugs and surgeries. The Democrat governor also allocated $400,000 to recruit out-of-state abortionists to travel to New Mexico to kill its citizens.
However, the last-minute budget request is causing headaches for legislative leaders who are used to passing the appropriations bill on a bipartisan basis. Most of the projects are relatively standard fare — sewer upgrades, housing projects, and security investments as government buildings. The $1.2 billion bill is usually favored by both sides, as it funds thousands of projects across the state, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The news outlet reported:
House Bill 450, a $1.2 billion capital outlay measure that would fund more than 1,400 projects statewide, includes a $10 million appropriation from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to build a reproductive health clinic in Northern New Mexico.
The 11th-hour addition to the measure provoked the ire of House Republicans, who said the inclusion of that one appropriation meant they could not sign off on an entire spending bill they otherwise would have voted for.
Illustrating the normally bipartisan nature of the bill, one pro-life Republican said he would not vote for this legislation, though he has supported it for the past 11 years.
“Us using taxpayer dollars in New Mexico to create a state-funded abortion clinic that caters to out-of-state abortion-seekers is just … a pill that is too hard to swallow,” Rep. Rod Montoya said, as reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Even a Democratic leader recognized how the addition could cause problems.
House Taxation and Revenue Committee chair Derrick Lente, who is also the bill’s sponsor, found out about the addition at the last minute and felt the need to warn his Republican colleague on the committee. “I felt it important to tell our ranking member so that he could tell the membership so that you’re not caught in a situation where you voted yes (in committee) but on the floor, then you would have to then recount for that and then maybe make some excuses or make some type of comments related to them,” Lente said.
However, Lente declined to vote against the budget out of fear of retribution from the governor.
It is not clear where exactly the abortion facility will be located, but Lente said it will be on a “border town.”
The governor snuck $10 million to open an unspecified abortion facility in “Northern New Mexico” into the capital outlay bill — a poison pill to make pro-life members vote no. We attempted to remove this provision twice but were unsuccessful. I will not vote to spend our taxpayer… pic.twitter.com/wxG5elfglf
— Rep. John Block (@RepBlock) March 20, 2025
One of Lente’s fellow Democrats downplayed the criticism of the proposal, comparing the killing of innocent preborn babies with building a new water system.
“The harsh reality is that this is a need, just as much as a water system, just as much as another building, another hospital,” Rep. Anita Gonzales said. ” … Reproductive health care is health care, and in Northern New Mexico, it is very much needed.”
This current proposal should not be confused with a separate taxpayer-funded abortion facility in the state currently under construction in Las Cruces. Grisham pushed for that facility to ensure the state not only could help abort its tiniest citizens but also those of neighboring Texas.
Grisham allocated $10 million via executive order in 2022 to build the abortion facility. The goal was to ensure both rural and urban residents could abort their babies, as LifeSiteNews reported at the time. “The executive order also directs the Department of Health to develop a detailed plan to leverage resources to expand abortion access in rural and underserved parts of the state, work to make abortion medications available in state public health clinics, and to reduce wait times and increase access statewide,” a news release from the governor’s office stated.
Other states and cities have also allocated significant taxpayer dollars to expanding the killing of preborn babies.
For example, leftist Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced $500,000 in taxpayer dollars would go to “to scale up access to reproductive health care for those who are going to need it,” blasphemously saying it would help women reach their “God-given potential.”
The leftist mayor, who would later lose in a historic primary to fellow left-wing Democrat Brandon Johnson, made the announcement in May 2022, shortly after the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision that affirmed there is no “right” to abortion.
Similarly, the New York City Council allocated $250,000 for a similar abortion fund, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
