NM Still Needs NOW

And the leaders of the Santa Fe chapter of the National Organization of Women are incredulous. More than 40 years after Roe v. Wade, they're still fighting the same battle. And whether they are holding the hill remains to be seen.

Even before this summer's viral Internet video attack on Planned Parenthood, the local NOW group was planning what seems like a sortie: A high-profile author is visiting the City Different this weekend for a fundraiser that also helps the Religious Coalition for Choice.

Katha Pollitt's book Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights made a splash last year when she laid out the argument that framed abortion as a "common part of a woman's reproductive life, one that should be accepted as a moral right with positive social implications."

Dana Middleton says she can hardly believe that the argument isn't a foregone conclusion in modern American discourse.

"We are horrified that we are doing this again after all these years," says Middleton, the group's president, as she and two other NOW officers visit SFR on a tour promoting the fundraiser. "I sort of feel like the day after Roe v. Wade passed, everybody kind of went, Whew, this is really great, and it really changed everything for our daughters. But like the day after it passed, I think the extreme right went to work. They did not sleep."

Hence the all-encompassing effort the women are still a part of, even while they are cherishing their grandchildren. It's not just holding signs on the steps of the Supreme Court, the way some of the members did when the High Court heard the landmark case in the '70s, but quieter advocacy including support of a fund that helps women pay for travel, lodging and other expenses related to abortion that aren't covered by Medicaid.

And it's also a relentless presence at lower levels of government.

While New Mexico's laws about abortion access create a safer environment than in some neighboring states, the fact that Republicans have gained a majority in the state House of Representatives meant that during the last lawmaking session, restrictions on abortion, such as parental notification for women under the age of 18, made it further into the legislative process than in recent memory.

"We do this citizen lobbying every year, and you see the same people coming to the committee," says Janet Gotkin, the local NOW treasurer, "but this year, the committees were controlled by Republicans, and these bills passed the House. So it was up to the Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats, who kept them from going."

"This is happening all over the country," Becky Langford, chapter vice president, chimes in. "I still can't grasp my mind around how much they hate women."

No one who's pushing for limits to abortion frames it quite that way. Some overtures on the topic take on the language of commerce. One legislator said this summer, for example, that he would ask the attorney general to investigate the "unregulated abortion industry." (The AG's spokesman tells SFR no such request had been recieved as of press time.)

With the closing a few years back of a private practice in Santa Fe that provided surgical abortions, women from Northern New Mexico must travel to Albuquerque, and the only other doctors who perform abortions in the state are in Las Cruces. Middleton says that's a precarious situation.

"I don't think a lot of people know. We know, because we're really deeply involved in the legislative process and formulating strategy through the coalition, how tenuous this safety is. We are always coming out as one of the top-rated states," she says, "because we don't have parental consent notification and we don't have [mandatory waiting periods], but we only have three clinics in this huge rural state, which just raises tremendous challenges."

AN EVENING WITH KATHA POLLITT
7 pm Saturday, Sept. 12. $15.
James A Little Theater,
1060 Cerrillos Road,
660-2696

Santa Fe Reporter