New Mexico

New Mexico launches investigation of forced sterilization of Native American women

Published

3 months ago

February 21, 2026

New Mexico launches investigation of forced sterilization of Native American women

EDGEWOOD, N.M. (AP) — In the 1970s, the U.S. agency that provides health care to Native Americans sterilized thousands of women without their full and informed consent, depriving them of the opportunity to start or grow families.

Decades later, the state of New Mexico is set to investigate that troubling history and its lasting harm.

New Mexico legislators approved a measure this week to have the state Indian Affairs Department and the Commission on the Status of Women examine the history, scope and continuing impact of forced and coerced sterilizations of women of color by the Indian Health Service and other providers. The findings are expected to be reported to the governor by the end of 2027.

“It’s important for New Mexico to understand the atrocities that took place within the borders of our state,” said state Sen. Linda Lopez, one of the legislation’s sponsors.

It’s not the first state to confront its past. In 2023, Vermont launched a truth and reconciliation commission to study forced sterilization of marginalized groups including Native Americans. In 2024, California began paying reparations to people who had been sterilized without their consent in state-run prisons and hospitals.

The New Mexico Legislature also laid the groundwork to create a separate healing commission and for a formal acknowledgment of a little known piece of history that haunts Native families

Sarah Deer, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said it’s long overdue.

“The women in these communities carry these stories,” she said.

Outside of a 1976 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the federal government has never acknowledged what Deer calls a campaign of “systemic” sterilizations in Native American communities.

The Indian Health Service and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, did not respond to multiple emails requesting comment on New Mexico’s investigation.

A troubling history

In 1972, Jean Whitehorse was admitted to an Indian Health Service hospital in Gallup, New Mexico, with a ruptured appendix. Just 22 and a new mother, Whitehorse said she remembers experiencing “extreme pain” as providers presented her with a flurry of consent forms before rushing her into emergency surgery.

“The nurse held the pen in my hand. I just signed on the line,” said Whitehorse, a Navajo Nation citizen.

A few years later when she was struggling to conceive a second child, Whitehorse said she returned to the hospital and learned she had received a tubal ligation. The news devastated Whitehorse, contributed to the breakdown of her relationship and sent her spiraling into alcoholism, she said.

Advocates already were sounding the alarm about women like Whitehorse who were entering IHS clinics and hospitals to give birth or for other procedures and later finding themselves unable to conceive. The activist group Women of All Red Nations, or WARN — an offshoot of the American Indian Movement — was formed in part to expose the practice.

In 1974, Choctaw and Cherokee physician Connie Redbird Uri reviewed IHS records and alleged that the federal agency had sterilized as many as 25% of its female patients of childbearing age. Some of the women Uri interviewed were unaware they had been sterilized. Others said they were bullied into consenting or misled to believe the procedure was reversible.

Uri’s allegations helped prompt the GAO audit, which found that the Indian Health Service sterilized 3,406 women in four of the agency’s 12 service areas between 1973 and 1976, including in Albuquerque. The agency found that some patients were under the age of 21 and most had signed forms that didn’t comply with federal regulations meant to ensure informed consent.

GAO researchers determined that interviewing women who had undergone sterilizations “would not be productive,” citing a single study of cardiac surgical patients in New York who struggled to recall past conversations with doctors. Because of the lack of patient interviews and the narrow purview of the GAO’s audit, advocates say the full scope and impact remains unaccounted for.

A venue to tell their stories

Whitehorse didn’t share her experience for nearly 40 years, she said. First, she told her daughter. Then, other family.

“Each time I tell my story, it relieves the shame, the guilt,” Whitehorse said. “Now I think, why should I be ashamed? It’s the government that should be ashamed of what they did to us.”

Whitehorse now advocates publicly for victims of forced sterilization. In 2025, she testified about the practice to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and called for the United States to formally apologize.

Whitehorse hopes New Mexico’s investigation will offer more victims a venue to tell their stories. But advocates like Rachael Lorenzo, executive director of the Albuquerque-based sexual and reproductive health organization Indigenous Women Rising, say the commission must be careful to avoid re-traumatizing survivors across generations.

“It’s such a taboo topic. There’s a lot of support that needs to happen when we tell these traumatic stories,” said Lorenzo.

In a New Mexico legislative hearing earlier this month, retired Indian Health Service physician Dr. Donald Clark testified that he has seen patients in their 20s and 30s “seeking contraception but not trusting that they will not be irreversibly sterilized” because of stories quietly passed down by their grandmothers, mothers and aunts.

“It’s still an issue that is affecting women’s choice of birth control today,” Clark said.

A pattern of disenfranchisement

A 1927 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Buck v. Bell upheld states’ rights to sterilize people it considered “unfit” to reproduce, paving the way for the forced sterilization of immigrants, people of color, disabled people and other disenfranchised groups throughout the 20th century.

According to Lorenzo and Deer, the sterilization of Native American women fits into a pattern of federal policies meant to disrupt Native people’s reproductive autonomy, from the systemic removal of Indigenous children into government boarding schools and non-Native foster homes to the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which prevents tribal clinics and hospitals that receive federal funding from performing abortions in almost all cases.

In Canada, doctors have been sanctioned as recently as 2023 for sterilizing Indigenous women without their consent.

Deer said New Mexico’s investigation could pave the way for accountability. But without cooperation from the federal government, Deer said the commission’s fact-finding abilities would be limited.

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New Mexico

New Mexico lawmakers, leaders respond to federal lawsuit

Published

8 hours ago

May 10, 2026

Press Room

New Mexico lawmakers, leaders respond to federal lawsuit

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — State lawmakers and leaders released the following statements in response to the federal lawsuit against New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez

“House Bill 9 is a constitutional exercise of state authority, and this office will defend it.

The New Mexico Legislature passed this law after extensive consideration of documented harms occurring in immigration detention facilities operating in this state — inadequate medical care, deaths in custody, and conditions that fell well below acceptable standards. The Legislature made a considered judgment that New Mexico’s government, its employees, and its publicly funded facilities should not be instruments of a detention system that has caused serious and preventable harm to people held within our borders. That is precisely the kind of policy judgment that belongs to the states.

The Constitution reserves to the states the power to govern their own affairs — including how state and local personnel are deployed and how publicly funded facilities are used. Federal agents remain free to enforce federal immigration law. They may make arrests, conduct investigations, and carry out removals. What they may not do is compel New Mexico’s officers, employees, and institutions to administer federal enforcement priorities the state has chosen not to adopt. The federal government has its own personnel and its own resources. It does not have a constitutional right to New Mexico’s.

This lawsuit asks a federal court to override a democratically enacted state law because the administration disagrees with the policy choice the Legislature made. That is not a constitutional argument. It is an attempt to use federal litigation to reverse an outcome the administration dislikes. We will see them in court.”

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller

“I will always stand up for the safety, rights, and dignity of Albuquerque residents. Our policies ensure ALL families can call 911, send their kids to school, and access City services without fear, while making clear that City resources are not tools for federal immigration raids. We are ready to defend our community, our values, and our public safety in court,”

City Councilor Dan Lewis

“Mayor Keller deserves to be sued for his reckless promotion of dangerous sanctuary policies that undermine cooperation between law enforcement agencies and put everyone at risk. Sanctuary laws don’t protect; they create more victims. I opposed Keller’s so-called ‘Safer Community Places’ ordinance from the beginning. It’s nothing more than obstruction of law enforcement and this mayor chose his radical ideology over public safety. Most people in our City agree that there is a public safety benefit when local, state and federal law enforcement work together to enforce the law and protect innocent people.”

Deb Haaland

“As ICE continues threatening communities across the country, the state is the first line of defense against the Trump administration. In New Mexico, we are lucky that the state and localities worked to lawfully pass legislation to protect New Mexicans and their families from ICE. We can’t let the federal government continue to exert their will on New Mexico and we won’t let them intimidate us. We are a multicultural state, we must stand strong with our neighbors. That means as governor, I will do anything in my power to stop ICE from tearing families apart and committing crimes in our streets while advocating for strong, common sense immigration and border security reform.”

The Democratic Party of New Mexico

“The Immigrant Safety Act passed both legislative chambers and was signed into law constitutionally, within our rights as a state, concerning New Mexico’s own personnel, facilities, and resources. The Trump Administration may not like that New Mexico stands for the safety of all the families in our communities and against inhumane and dangerous conditions in for-profit detention centers, but they have to respect our rights as a state.

The fact of the matter is that the Trump Administration is overstepping its authority as they continue to force a violent, clumsy immigration agenda onto communities it has terrorized across the country against their will.”

Republican Party of New Mexico

“The lawsuit filed by the United States against the State of New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Attorney General Raul Torrez, the City of Albuquerque, and Mayor Timothy Keller confirms what many New Mexicans have feared for months — that House Bill 9 and Albuquerque’s Safer Community Places Ordinance were driven by partisan politics rather than the safety, stability, and economic well-being of our communities.

Legislators who pushed HB9 chose political ideology over common sense and over the people they were elected to represent. This legislation appears to have been crafted not to improve public safety or immigration outcomes, but to advance an anti-Trump political agenda at any cost. In doing so, they ignored the serious consequences these policies would have on New Mexico families, local economies, county governments, and the very immigrants they claim to protect.

The federal government’s complaint makes clear that these laws threaten decades-long partnerships between local governments and federal authorities that have been essential to maintaining public safety and enforcing immigration law. These partnerships support jobs, economic activity, and critical infrastructure in communities like Otero County, where nearly 300 jobs are now at risk because of these reckless political decisions.

New Mexico legislators also failed to consider the financial burden these measures place on counties and municipalities already struggling with limited resources. Instead of working collaboratively to address immigration challenges responsibly and humanely, they chose confrontation and obstruction.

Most troubling is the complete disregard for the safety of New Mexicans. Policies that intentionally interfere with federal immigration enforcement risk creating greater instability, undermining law enforcement cooperation, and putting thousands of residents at risk. At the same time, these policies do nothing to improve the care, processing, or long-term outcomes for immigrants being housed in detention and processing facilities.

The people of New Mexico deserve leadership focused on public safety, economic security, and lawful solutions — not political theater designed to score partisan points. When elected officials prioritize ideology over citizens, communities suffer. The consequences of HB9 and related sanctuary-style policies are now being challenged in federal court, and New Mexicans are left to deal with the damage caused by leaders who appeared more interested in opposing President Trump than protecting the people of this state.

And now, after advancing policies that threaten jobs, hurt counties financially, undermine law enforcement cooperation, and divide communities, these same legislators want taxpayers to pay them for their failing policies. Instead of moving New Mexico forward, too many elected officials have focused solely on advancing their own political agendas while ignoring the real needs of working families, local governments, and public safety.

This election season, New Mexicans have an opportunity to speak loudly at the polls. The primary elections matter, and voters must carefully choose strong Republican candidates willing to go to Santa Fe and fight against harmful policies that put politics above people. New Mexico deserves leaders who will protect communities, strengthen the economy, support law enforcement, and put citizens first — not politicians who continue to gamble with the future of this state.”

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New Mexico

Phoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years

Published

20 hours ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

Phoebe Bridgers Debuts New Music at First Show in Three Years

Phoebe Bridgers played her first solo show in three years on Friday night at The Liberty in Roswell, New Mexico. And if reports are to be believed, the singer’s next album/creative era could truly be out of this world.

The intimate, 13-song set at the 400-capacity venue served as Bridgers’ first solo performance since May 2023 when she opened for Taylor Swift at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. According to posts from several attendees, Bridgers described the evening (which strictly forbid all recording devices) as a “test” for her third album (and follow-up to 2020’s excellent Punisher).

In addition to hits like “Motion Sickness” and “Kyoto,” Bridgers debuted three to four new songs. One attendee described the new music, which included one track tentatively-titled “This is Gonna Kill Me,” as “very sad folk.” Harmonica arrangements were also featured prominently across the new music, provided by Christian Lee Hutson, who served as part of Bridgers’ band.

New Mexico

New Mexico DOJ data: Shell-casing tracking links shootings in Doña Ana County

Published

1 day ago

May 9, 2026

Press Room

LAS CRUCES, N.M (KFOX14/CBS4) — A gun-tracking program that uses shell casings to connect shootings is already helping investigators link crimes in Doña Ana County, according to new numbers released by the New Mexico Department of Justice.

The effort is part of New Mexico’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center, which uses ballistic evidence such as shell casings to track guns believed to be used in multiple crimes. The program relies on the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN, a national database that compares ballistic evidence to determine whether shell casings may have come from the same weapon.

In April, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez described how the technology can connect cases across jurisdictions.

“There may be a shooting that occurs in Deming that’s actually connected to a crime gun that’s recovered in Las Cruces. We may find shell casings in Silver City that are connected to something that happened in T or C,” Torrez said.

Four months into the program, the Department of Justice said 210 bullet casings have been analyzed in Doña Ana County. Those casings helped link 32 incidents to 13 guns.

Jordan Salas reports on New Mexico DOJ data: Shell-casing tracking links shootings in Doña Ana County (Credit: KFOX14)

Statewide, more than 700 casings have been entered into the system, connecting 74 shootings to 31 guns.

One person reacting to the numbers said, “That’s crazy. Honestly, all those shootings all coming from that little amount of weapons is crazy.”

New Mexico officials say the system is designed to help law enforcement share information faster and build cases more efficiently.

Also in April, Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart pointed to a local case she said the technology helped resolve quickly.

“We resolved a homicide with a suspect arrest in four days. We know that those casings may lead to another 1 or 2 incidents in another city,” Stewart said.

Some residents said the technology alone will not solve gun violence, but they see it as a step forward. One person said, “I mean, growing up, like hearing gunshots in the distance. That wasn’t something crazy. I have stories of, like, friends who’ve gone to parties that had guns go off there. So, yeah, I would say guns are a problem there.”

Another person said, “I would think that it’s a good thing. I’m personally like, just anything to help the gun crimes, you know?”

KFOX14/CBS4 contacted Las Cruces police and the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office to ask how the leads are being used in local investigations, but we are awaiting a response.

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