New Mexico
Harris surrogate, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham compares abortion services in New Mexico to the Underground Railroad
STERLING, Va. — Stumping for the Harris-Walz ticket in Virginia on Monday, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said that her state is running a de facto “Underground Railroad” for abortion services since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Democratic pol said that 75% of abortion services performed in New Mexico are on out-of-state patients, and described the situation in her state as an “underground operation.”
“We literally now have an underground operation, not unlike something we’re all familiar with, the Underground Railroad, to try to make sure that we get to women and their families early,” the gov told the crowd of about 30 at the Northern Virginia Democrat Headquarters.
She also shared the grim reality of many patients who traverse New Mexico’s “underground railroad,” adding: “Sometimes if we save their lives, we’ve also ruined any opportunity for them to have a child of their own when they’re ready to have a child of their own.”
Still, she says her state is a “bastion for safe, fair reproductive access around the country.”
Lujan Grisham also shared that her state has put up billboards in Texas — where 71% of the New Mexico’s out-of-state abortion patients come from — to recruit more doctors from their neighbor to the east to practice medicine in New Mexico.
“If you’re a health care practitioner, why would you practice here if you’re sworn to protect the lives of your patients? If you want no interference, come to New Mexico,” the gov said.
Alicia McFadden, a 44-year-old mother of two was in attendance Monday, and told The Post she showed up because of her passion for supporting reproductive rights.
“My baby is an IVF baby, and we’ve seen. I’m from Alabama, so I’ve seen very first-hand people who do not have access and have their access to IVF limited. So I’m very passionate about IVF and paying for IVF. Luckily, we could afford IVF, not easily, but we could afford it, but there are a lot of people that can’t afford IVF, especially in Virginia.”
Asked about Trump’s recent endorsement of IVF practices, especially noting that the treatments would be free under a second Trump term, McFadden said she “that’s not true, I don’t believe it.”
“Reproductive rights, abortion and IVF is right there together. Many times you have embryos that you transfer, and for whatever reason that you may not take, they may take, but then there’s some issue, and you need to have access to abortion.” McFadden told The Post. “So you can’t have one without the other.”
Abortion was a major topic of discussion in Tuesday’s presidential debate, in which the candidates sparred over the hot-button election issue.
Former President Trump reiterated that he believes in abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother, and applauded the overturn of Roe v. Wade for returning the policy decisions to the states and their voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that Trump would sign a federal abortion ban into law, which Trump disputed as a lie. The veep would not answer whether she’d back any restrictions on abortion access, even in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy, when pressed by both the moderator and Donald Trump.
The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.
SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.
Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images
Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.
Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.
There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.
After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.
It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.
Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.
Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:
- Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
- Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
- New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).
What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.
That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.
With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.
New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.
But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.
Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.
What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.
Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility
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