Editor,
On Nov. 19, Albuquerque voters will decide whether the city government should interfere with a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy. Before going to the polls, voters should ask themselves, “Is this really the government’s business?”
Out-of-state groups have descended upon our city to push for this unconstitutional and intrusive law, spreading misleading information about this measure and disrespecting Albuquerque’s women in the process. These deeply personal decisions should remain between women, their families and their doctors. No one has the right to make these decisions but the women who are affected by them.
This ballot measure, based on findings that are not supported by the medical community, aims at banning access to safe and legal abortions. The groups behind this effort are using junk science in an attempt to scare voters into endorsing something they would not ordinarily support.
I know from talking to the women and medical professionals in my own life that abortions later in pregnancy do not happen very often to begin with, but when they do, they often occur under unimaginably painful and heartbreaking circumstances.
In some cases, women with cancer are unable to receive critical chemotherapy treatments due to their pregnancy. In other situations, doctors may discover a fetal anomaly that was impossible to identify earlier in the pregnancy such that, if the woman gave birth, the child’s life would be extremely traumatic and short.
These scenarios are painful enough for women who are already perfectly capable of working through them with their doctors and family, without government intrusion. The government should not involve itself in these decisions, and it is not the place of any person to judge women when they find themselves in a set of circumstances that we, as outsiders, could not possibly understand.
We cannot stand in their shoes, and we should not try.
Rather than inserting itself into women’s lives, the government should respect the right to safe and legal abortions while reducing the need through readily available contraceptives, education and family planning services.
As an Albuquerque man who cares about the women in my life, city and state, I am going to cast my ballot against this measure. We must respect our sisters, wives, mothers and daughters by ensuring that they have continued access to safe and legal abortions in Albuquerque.
I ask that my fellow voters, and particularly male voters, will take the time to understand that the government, at any level, does not have the right to intrude on these extremely private decisions. Every pregnancy is different, and women are perfectly capable of making such difficult decisions about their pregnancies on their own, especially when their own health is at risk.
On Nov. 19, please do the right thing for our city, and vote no on this misguided measure.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Robert Johnston
UNM law student
