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Location For Doña Ana Co. Reproductive Health Center Expected To Be Announced Next Month

Las Cruces from the foothills of the Organ Mountains in Doña Ana County Monday, April 22, 2024. The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and reproductive health advocacy organizations plan to announce the location of a new state-funded reproductive health clinic in the county in two to three weeks. (Photo by Leah Romero for Source NM)

The location for New Mexico's $10 million reproductive health clinic in Doña Ana is slowly getting closer to a public announcement. 

Dr. Eve Espey, an instrumental organizer in the project, said the different groups involved are in the final stages of vetting properties and deciding on a location in the county in Southern New Mexico. She said she anticipates an announcement within the next month. 

"We are very close," Espey said. "I think we'll be able to talk about it in two to three weeks."

The project was initially announced to the public by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham through an executive order in August 2022. She said it is a way to increase access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion services. 

Espey, chair of the University of New Mexico's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, represents UNM Health Sciences Center, one of the four planning organizations on the project that also includes Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Bold Futures and Strong Families New Mexico. 

The university's health sciences center is acting as the local fiscal agent to spend $10 million appropriated in 2023 by the state legislature through a capital outlay bill.

Bold Futures Executive Director Charlene Bencomo added that "tangible progress" has been made in securing a location.

Espey said the group hopes to break ground this summer and is working to meet that goal, a timeline the governor's office said it is aiming for in an email with Source New Mexico several weeks ago.

On Monday, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Michael Coleman affirmed the project remains a priority for the governor's office 

"Gov. Lujan Grisham is determined to expand reproductive health care options in New Mexico, and the Dona Ana County clinic is an integral part of this effort," Coleman said. 

Espey said project updates were sparse this past year because organizers are tasked with building a new model that required work between multiple agencies. On top of that, funding moves slowly between multiple government channels.

She said much of that work is finished.

"I would say that given the pace of bureaucracies, things have actually happened at a very rapid pace," she said. "We can expect the pace to pick up very quickly at this point."

Espey notes that reproductive health clinic planning began ahead of federal abortion ban

Espey explained that the creation of a clinic began with a grant application to the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity. UNM Health Sciences, Bold Futures and Strong Families wanted to identify where a reproductive health clinic could reduce inequalities. Doña Ana, McKinley and Santa Fe counties were the three areas their study determined resources should be targeted to consider a new clinic.

"I think it was the combination of the community perspectives, the economic feasibility, the demographics that ultimately landed us on Doña Ana County," Espey said. "In retrospect, that seems super obvious because of what's going on in Texas, but that was actually not the case when we started the project."

Espey said reproductive health deserts still exist and create further need for services in the state, and additional clinics in McKinley and Santa Fe counties are still possibilities.

Lujan Grisham's executive order brought the state into the mix, established initial funding and allowed the four groups to collaborate on the new facility in Doña Ana County.

Next steps

While work on choosing a location is the major focus right now, Espey said work continues simultaneously on finding an architect to contract with, developing a staffing plan and an advisory board. 

Bencomo told Source New Mexico several months ago that she predicted the clinic taking another two years before it is open to patients. Espey said the prediction is reasonable, but organizers are also working "to shorten that timeline as much as possible."

As for funding, the $10 million appropriation was made solely for construction of the clinic. Espey said organizers are developing a business plan for the clinic, but they anticipate needing more monetary support to ensure the clinic continues to operate once open. 

"We would love to propose that to the legislature and also to private foundations and other funders," she said.

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The post Location for Doña Ana Co. Reproductive health center expected to be announced next month appeared first on Source New Mexico.

A Year Later, Southern N.M. Still Waiting On Location For State Reproductive Health Clinic

Little progress has been made with the $10 million New Mexico lawmakers secured in 2023 to fund a reproductive health clinic in Doña Ana County.

As the money sits mostly untouched in an account at the University of New Mexico, the project's principal fiscal agent, the statewide interest groups insist the planning stage is moving along and expect more progress this summer.

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Dallas Church Launches A Pregnancy Center To Counter Anti-abortion Misinformation

The First Unitarian Church of Dallas is launching a pregnancy resource center to provide comprehensive reproductive health information and counseling. The church aims to counter misinformation from crisis pregnancy centers.

The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center will offer sonograms, pregnancy tests, and resources for adoption. Unlike crisis pregnancy centers, it will also offer information on contraceptives and out-of-state abortion resources.

"One of the focuses of this center is that birth and giving birth and determining the future of one's family isn't a crisis," said T.J. FitzGerald, the minister of community care and engagement at the church. "The only crisis in this state is a crisis of humanity, a crisis of dignity, a crisis of compassion."

He said the center's goal is to offer "full information to the folks who are coming."

"I've always kind of struggled with this idea that we're just not going to speak about abortion care," FitzGerald said. "When someone comes through our doors, and they have access to the internet and are aware they can travel, they should not be journeying through that process alone."

Since 2021, when Senate Bill 8 imposed a six-week abortion ban, Texans seeking an abortion have had to travel out of state for care.

Resound Research for Reproductive Health, a collaborative studying reproductive health in the state, found close to 1,400 Texans sought abortion care in Oklahoma and New Mexico between August and December 2021.

While abortion is now banned in Texas and much of the Southwest, it is still legal in neighboring states like New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.

"Last I checked, providing education about medical questions, and providing support for emotional care or spiritual guidance is still legal in the state of Texas," FitzGerald said.

What is a crisis pregnancy center?

Texas has the most crisis pregnancy centers, also known as pregnancy resource centers or abortion alternative clinics, in the country. Data from the University of Georgia College of Public Health shows there are close to 200 locations across Texas, with a fourth of those located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Crisis pregnancy centers often offer free services, like STI testing and ultrasounds, but are not medical clinics. Many centers are funded by and affiliated with faith-based organizations that oppose abortion and contraceptive access and may make claims that are medically inaccurate.

A 2022 study in the International Journal of Women's Health said these claims can include "exaggerating the likelihood of miscarriage in early pregnancy to downplay the urgency in seeking abortion care, and emphasizing non-factual relationships between abortion and infertility, breast cancer and adverse mental health effects."

Anna Chatillon, a research scientist with Resound Research for Reproductive Health in Austin, said people looking for abortion information and resources might accidentally end up at crisis pregnancy centers.

"All of these people could be better served with evidence-based medical care that would truly support their decision-making about their own pregnancies," she said.

Pregnant people already have inadequate access to maternal care in Texas, Chatillon said, and almost half of the counties in Texas are considered maternity care deserts, with no maternity care centers or obstetricians.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

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AP

A 25-year-old woman from Texarkana, Texas, whose husband and nursing toddler waited outside in their car, is guided by lab technician Stephannie Chaffee as she goes to meet with a doctor to be given pills and guidance for a medical abortion, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La. The nation's most restrictive abortion law is driving many women from Texas to seek services in neighboring states. The woman said she was already five weeks along before she realized she was pregnant, and she knew it would be impossible to schedule the required two visits at a Texas clinic. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Crisis pregnancy center funding in Texas

Alternatives to abortion, like crisis pregnancy centers, are supported by the Texas Legislature. The Thriving Texas Families program, previously called the Alternatives to Abortion Program, funds a network of crisis pregnancy centers and adoption centers, among other education and support organizations.

The program, out of the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, aims to "promote childbirth as an alternative to abortion" and provide support to pregnant people "to promote childbirth in all instances of pregnancy."

Centers are prohibited from using funding from the Thriving Texas Families Program to "perform, induce, assist, or refer an abortion; or grant funds to an abortion provider or an affiliate of an abortion provider."

Lawmakers in 2022 approved $100 million in funding for the program, and added another $140 million for 2024-25 during last year's legislative session.

"Really only time is going to tell us how that increase in funding and the other changes in the reproductive health landscape are going to affect things," Chatillon said.

But she said there is still a need for affordable maternity care, and the upcoming legislative session could prioritize other policy changes to improve pregnant people's health access.

"That could include expanding income eligibility for health insurance under the Medicaid program, which would help people enter pregnancy healthy," Chatillon said.

The Truth Pregnancy Resource Center in Dallas opens April 26.

FitzGerald said the center, headed by executive director Deneen Robinson, is "still staffing up and still growing." He said the opening will help the organization get a better sense of what people need in the community.

"I believe that there is a future where this great state will care for all of its people in a way that is comprehensive," FitzGerald said.

Elena Rivera is KERA's health reporter. Got a tip? Email Elena at erivera@kera.Org 

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