Abortion access lacking in Santa Fe despite progressive reputation
Despite statewide push, Planned Parenthood and politicians don’t have plan to bring back access to surgical procedure in Santa Fe, missing since 2011
The City Different is often lauded by liberals for its progressive policies — and derided by conservatives.
Elected officials have declared Santa Fe a sanctuary city for immigrants, designated certain city properties “gun-free zones” and launched an Office of Equity and Inclusion.
When the U.S. Supreme Court in summer 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had protected abortion rights nationwide for decades, the overwhelmingly Democratic City Council passed a resolution supporting state and federal measures protecting access to
safe abortions.
“Santa Fe is in so many different ways a progressive community,” Mayor Alan Webber said in a recent interview.
Within city limits, however, abortion access has been thin since long before the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe.
New Mexico, which last year enacted a law prohibiting local abortion restrictions, has become a haven for an increasing number of women in states where services are severely restricted or outlawed. But its progressive capital city has remained without surgical abortion services for more than a dozen years, even as the number of providers in the state has increased significantly.
There are now 14 providers in New Mexico, including at least six that perform surgical procedures — double the number available in 2022. However, most providers are concentrated in Albuquerque, leaving large swaths of the state with little access.
Neither city officials nor national abortion provider Planned Parenthood, which operates several clinics in the state, has taken steps to try to fill a gap in Santa Fe left in 2011, when the city’s only provider of surgical abortions, Dr. Lucia Cies, retired from the private practice she had been operating since 1985.
At least one city councilor indicated she is not even aware of the services available in Santa Fe.
Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth first wrote in an email New Mexico is a “beacon of light” in the fight for abortion access. In a later interview, she declined to comment on whether she believes Santa Fe’s abortion services are adequate.
“I can’t comment on that because I’m not familiar with it,” she said.
City Councilor Jamie Cassutt sent out a campaign mailer in 2023 touting herself as a “pro-choice Democrat” who “will protect a woman’s freedom to choose.”
She explained at the time she viewed her role as defensive.
“If there are these attempts to limit abortion in Santa Fe, [it’s important] there are elected officials who are ready to defend that right,” she said.
In an interview Wednesday, Cassutt said one of the most important things the council can do is “make sure our zoning laws are not in any way prohibitive if a clinic is looking to reestablish here in Santa Fe.”
‘Terrible’ direct access
As Cies prepared for retirement, she attempted to get someone to take over her practice but was unsuccessful.
“I was very disappointed that I was not able to set up some way for abortions to continue in Santa Fe,” she told The New Mexican in 2012.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains operates a clinic in Santa Fe where it offers medication abortion, which is effective at ending pregnancies up to 11 weeks’ gestation. It has no plans to offer surgical procedures.
Adrienne Mansanares, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said Santa Fe is not a priority for the organization to expand its services due to the city’s small population.
The organization’s only surgical abortion services are offered at a clinic in Albuquerque. If Planned Parenthood decided to expand surgical services to a second site in the state, it likely would select Las Cruces, Mansanares said.
It would take “more donor support” to expand services, she added.
“When we put out a bid now for a new health center for procedural abortion care, it’s looking at just around $7 [million] to $9 million to build a new facility,” an estimate that is increasing due to rising construction costs, Mansanares said.
“I absolutely hope that there are independent providers or even just the hospital and other family medicine providers in Santa Fe that would offer procedural abortion care. It would just help so much,” she said.
It’s unlikely abortions would become available at the city’s largest hospital, Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center; it is subject to the health care directives of the Catholic Church, which do not permit abortion under almost any circumstance.
Cies said in the 2012 interview the merger between Christus Health and what was then St. Vincent Regional Medical Center “really changed the landscape” for abortion access in Santa Fe.
Janet Gotkin, a longtime activist and member of the Santa Fe chapter of the National Organization for Women, said Cies’ retirement “was a big loss.”
Cies’ clinic struggled with protesters, she added.
Gotkin said Santa Fe has a very robust fundraising network to aid people traveling to the state to receive abortion care, but “direct access to facilities, it’s terrible.”
There’s a stark difference between the state’s legal protections for abortion, some of the strongest in the nation, and the reality of available abortion services, she said. “We’re better off in many ways in terms of legality and restrictions than almost any other state, but in terms of true access and equitable care, it’s pretty bleak.”
Not everyone in Santa Fe was sad to see Cies’ clinic go. Catholic nonprofit Project Defending Life and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe have anti-abortion ministries in Santa Fe, and the nonprofit holds regular peaceful protests outside the Planned Parenthood clinic.
A prayer service is scheduled there on Good Friday, according to Project Defending Life’s website.
Abq. joined funding wave
Albuquerque City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn said her city was “one of the first” in the nation to offer funding to Planned Parenthood. It was part of a wave of cities that responded to the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe by offering millions of dollars to fund services.
Fiebelkorn sponsored an Albuquerque budget amendment in 2022 adding $250,000 for the organization; it passed on a 6-3 vote.
The decision sparked a flood of backlash from conservative and anti-abortion organizations, along with a legal challenge from Rio Grande Foundation President Paul Gessing and Albuquerque-based crisis pregnancy center CareNet. Fiebelkorn has no regrets. “I give council-directed sponsorships to many, many nonprofits in Albuquerque every year and no one seems to have a problem with it until it’s about a woman’s rights,” she said.
“I understand that every city has its own set of politics and rules, so I would never say, ‘Someone should do this,’ but what I will say is as a woman I have a responsibility to make sure women in my community have all the choices,” she said.
Webber indicated it could be possible for Santa Fe to provide funding to Planned Parenthood or another organization to offer surgical abortions. The city has helped fund other community health providers.
“I wouldn’t say it would be hard to imagine the city or other jurisdictions participating in ways to support nonprofit organizations that provide safe access to reproductive care,” Webber said.
But there are no plans to do so. Councilor Michael Garcia said he supports a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions but has not heard any concerns from constituents about a lack of access.
“Should that be the case, I think that’s where we need to begin to work with the appropriate health care providers to boost up services,” he said.
Councilors Amanda Chavez, Lee Garcia and Alma Castro did not respond to requests for comment. Councilor Signe Lindell said in a statement she believes in supporting women’s health care but did not answer questions about abortion access in Santa Fe.
Councilor Pilar Faulkner might be willing to weigh in on international affairs — she said at a recent meeting she would back a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza — but when it comes to issues such as abortion and gun control, she thinks legislation should happen at the state level.
“I am not a fan of municipal governments made up of eight people or nine people weighing in on an issue that affects so many people,” Faulkner said in an interview.
She said, however, she would like to see cities offer incentives for doctors to move to the state, citing a lack of qualified specialists across the board.
“We do it for film. I don’t know why we can’t incentivize providing health care,” she said.
Cassutt said the high cost of living in Santa Fe is likely a barrier for all types of health providers.
Romero-Wirth noted the city has a competitive grant process. Planned Parenthood has received funding in the past for information about reproductive health, she said, and would be eligible to reapply.