Texas anti-abortion protesters set sights on New Mexico, where the procedure is still protected

New Mexican Democratic state Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena in Mesilla, New Mexico, on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. “We don’t need any outsiders coming here to try to mess with our autonomy and our capacity to shape our own families,” Lara Cadena said of Texan abortion opponents who plan to bring their cause across the border. (Credit: Emily Kinskey for The Texas Tribune)

For New Mexico state Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, the arrival of a new abortion clinic in Las Cruces, the city she represents, is surreal. Over the years, there hasn’t been consistent access to the procedure as providers came and went.

But now — weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to an abortion — the clinic at the heart of that decision has relocated from Mississippi to the city just across the Texas border of El Paso. It’s one of several clinics to announce its move to New Mexico in recent weeks.