Anti-abortion rally held outside of New Mexico’s newest abortion clinic in Las Cruces
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- The anti-abortion community in Las Cruces held a rally Tuesday night outside the Las Cruces Women's Health Organization clinic, the newest abortion clinic in New Mexico that is preparing to open its doors.
Organizers say they are worried New Mexico, one of the few states in the region where abortion is still legal, will become a new abortion destination with new clinics popping up. The Las Cruces Women's Health Organization relocated from Mississippi because the state had a trigger law in place that banned abortions once Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“We’re going from five or six abortion facilities in the state to potentially now 15 or more. We’re just getting overrun," Mark Cavaliere, the CEO of Southwest Coalition for Life, said. "We feel we need to stand up and say, 'Women deserve better.'”
During the rally, the group announced a Guiding Star Project clinic will open right next to the abortion clinic. Guiding Star Project is a women's clinic that provides fertility care, pregnancy and childbirth, lactation, and family life services. The clinic merged with the Southwest Coalition for Life.
It is the first time a Guiding Star clinic is being opened up right next to an abortion clinic.
“Free will always comes into play, but we want to make sure that she is fully informed of all of her options and that she can have a different decision even right there at the end," Leah Jacobson, CEO and founder of Guiding Star, said.
ABC-7 reached out to the Las Cruces Women's Health Organization clinic on Tuesday for a response to the rally, but the executive director was not available to talk.
