Man using petition drive to try to toss state abortion law

PORTALES — A Portales man hopes to collect 180,000 signatures statewide on a petition aimed at preventing new laws from taking effect June 18 — including the state’s protections for abortion access.

Logan Brown, a Portales High School science teacher and parent, said the petitions are targeting six laws.

“Four of the laws either directly or indirectly deal with abortion or transgenderism; the other two laws affect our elections, election integrity,” Brown said.

“House Bill 7 is telling local governing bodies they cannot restrict access to reproductive health care and gender affirming health care. Senate Bill 13 essentially protects providers of abortion/transgender services,” he added.

The petition drive comes as a state district judge in Lea County has granted the state’s request for a stay on a lawsuit filed by the city of Eunice challenging HB 7.

The Attorney General’s Office said in a news release Wednesday the lawsuit will remain on hold until the state Supreme Court issues an opinion on Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s petition seeking to block several local governments from enacting ordinances restricting access to abortion.

Torrez lauded the judge’s decision.

The new laws Brown hopes to challenge were passed this year by the heavily Democratic state Legislature; all of them were opposed by most Republican lawmakers.

Brown said he believes the threat posed by some of the laws include an infringement on parental rights.

He cited Senate Bill 397, which he said requires public schools to “have to have federally funded health clinics so they are funded by the federal government, thus removing local control and tying such facilities to federal control.”

Roosevelt County Democratic Party Chairman Tate Turnbaugh, a proponent of the laws Brown is trying to fight, noted in an email a troubling suicide rate for teens, especially those who identify as LGBTQ.

Brown also opposes House Bill 207, which he said “infringes on freedom of religion and freedom of assembly. It classifies any business that is open to the public a public contractor that may not discriminate based on gender identity or sexual orientation. That’s a problem because that opens churches to litigation.”

Turnbaugh’s response: “Why would a church be so worried about litigation? Is he saying that churches and places of worship are turning people away because of the way God created them?”