Advocates say two New Mexico state laws protecting reproductive and gender-affirming health care remain in place despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. (Photo by Greg LaRose / Louisiana Illuminator)
Even though the nation’s highest court upheld a state-level ban on gender-affirming care for young people this week, local advocates in New Mexico say legal protections here stand.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s 2023 ban on gender affirming care for minors. The same year that Tennessee enacted the prohibition, New Mexico went in the opposite direction with two new laws intended to protect this kind of health care.
New Mexico legally protects the trans community — but fear persists
New Mexico enacted the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act, which in part prohibits government entities from restricting or discriminating against a person’s right to access abortion and gender-affirming care. State lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also enacted the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act, which shields abortion and gender-affirming care providers from civil or criminal liability and discrimination by state licensing boards and by other states that lack these protections.
These state laws still stand despite the ruling, according to a statement released on Wednesday by seven New Mexico-based organizations.
“In New Mexico, we safeguard people’s access to the care they need,” the groups said. “Gender-affirming care is still protected and fully legal in the state of New Mexico.”
The group includes: the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, Equality New Mexico, ACLU of New Mexico, Bold Futures, Tewa Women United, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and ProgressNow New Mexico.
“In upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for young people, the court got it wrong,” the group said. “Denying transgender youth the health care they need solely because they’re trans is discriminatory. These laws block healthcare access and undermine the right we all have to bodily autonomy.”
Republicans in the New Mexico Senate on Wednesday, on the other hand, applauded the ruling, saying it permits state governments to ban gender-affirming care and arguing the New Mexico Legislature should reverse course.
“In stark contrast to the common sense we’re seeing out of Tennessee, New Mexico practically encourages children to undergo these permanent physical changes,” said Sen. Nick Paul (R-Alamogordo) in a statement. “After all, New Mexico funds these transgender surgeries with taxpayer dollars and even allows them to occur without parental consent. It’s time we show some common sense and enact protections for our kids by banning these irreversible procedures.”
Nathan Saavedra, policy director at Equality New Mexico, told Source NM on Friday that the ruling is harmful, stigmatizing and represents blatant political overreach.
“Here in New Mexico, we know that families know best about the health care their children need,” he said in a statement. “Our values have always been that New Mexico families and their providers should retain the right to make personal health care decisions without the government getting involved.”
The New Mexico community organizations said Wednesday all major medical associations have determined gender-affirming care to be safe, appropriate and effective.
“Gender-affirming care saves lives,” the group said. “We know that placing barriers between young people and medically necessary care deprives them of the chance to grow, thrive, and live authentically – in their own bodies and within our communities.”
In a “friend of the court” brief filed in the Supreme Court case, the two major professional associations for historians in the U.S., as well as the LGBTQ+ History Association, argue that surgical intervention, cross-sex hormone therapy and puberty blockers are well-established mainstream forms of health care and are not experimental or untested.
“Although gender-affirming care for adolescents is often depicted incorrectly as recently developed in a field previously restricted to adults, adolescents with parental consent have had well-documented access to medical interventions to alleviate distress from gender dysphoria in the U.S. for the past sixty years,” the historians wrote.
The group of New Mexico community organizations said transgender people have for generations faced efforts to erase them from public life — and every one of them has failed.
“This is no different,” the group said. “A world without trans people has never existed and never will.”
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This post was originally authored and published by Austin Fisher from via RSS Feed. to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
