Editorial, By the Chronicle Editorial Board
The late-term abortion ballot measure has been fueled by out-of-state and out-of-touch anti-abortion activists, who have no vested interest in the values or daily lives of New Mexicans, and should be stricken down with a steady hand by true Burqueños. Two of the major players in these groups, Bud and Tara Shaver, moved to our city for the specific reason of drum¬ming up anti-abortion regula¬tions, nothing more. These groups call our city “the abortion capitol of the United States,” saying hundreds of people flock to Albuquerque to get late-term abortions. In reality — as in, the real world — according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Mexico hosts less than half of the abortions that our neighbors Arizona and Colorado do, and less than a sixth of the number Texas does. Out of the comparatively small number of abortions that are performed, only five per¬cent are performed on people who come from out of state. In light of these facts, the title bestowed upon us by these propagandist groups seems less than fitting. These groups falsely claim that abortion is dangerous to women. In 2008, the most recent year for which this information is available, only 12 women died out of the more than 825,000 who received an abortion, according to the CDC. That’s a 99.9985 percent safety rate; according to the FDA that is a higher safety rate than ciprofloxacin, a common antibiotic widely considered safe and widely prescribed for urinary tract infections. The fact of the matter is that the arguments against abortion largely trends toward those of a moral and religious standing, and if one’s beliefs lead them to view abortion as wrong, so be it; that is one’s own personal conviction and decision to make. That does not mean, however, that laws should be enacted to reg¬ulate a personal and heartbreaking decision — particularly not when the people who are leading this charge are more concerned with the politics of the issue than with the people who would be affected by this abortion ballot is passed.
