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With the citywide abortion ban vote set for Tuesday, UNM has become a battleground for abortion activists, both from in and out of state.
Following last week’s string of abortion protests, StopPatriarchy.org, a national pro-abortion choice organization, protested in front of the UNM Bookstore Saturday afternoon. About 50 people attended the event.
Alex Petersburg, an organizer for StopPatriarchy, said her organization arrived in town last week to gear up for Albuquerque’s abortion vote.
“We just came from Mississippi, which has one abortion clinic left in the entire state,” she said. “The anti-abortion movement has a large push to shut down that clinic … We were there to defend the clinic.”
Tomorrow, Albuquerque residents will be able to vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, which is on the ballot for the city’s runoff elections. If passed, the ordinance would ban all abortions in the city after 20 weeks, with exceptions for physical conditions that endanger the life of the mother.
If approved, the ban would undermine women’s freedom, Petersburg said.
“The struggle for abortion really constitutes whether women are going to be treated as full human beings,” she said. “It will decide whether they are mothers or whether they’re going to be reduced to breeders.”
Petersburg said late-term abortions would suffer a large blow around the country if voters cast a ballot for the ban.
“There are only four providers in the nation that provide late-term abortions,” she said. “Albuquerque in particular has two of only four late-term providers in the nation … So this is really a woman-hating agenda.”
The other two late-term abortion providers in the country are in Colorado and in Maryland, Petersburg said.
In the protest, pro-abortion choice attendees carried signs and chanted, “A fetus is not a baby.” Midway into the event, anti-abortion protesters showed up on the sidewalk across the street from the pro-abortion choice ones. The anti-abortion protesters carried bloody pictures of aborted fetuses.
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Although her organization did not go to the protest, Samantha Serrano, president of UNM anti-abortion organization Students for Life, said fetuses should have the same rights as human beings.
“Maybe it’s not a baby,” she said. “But it is a human being. It is a fetus of a human species. Regardless of what level of development you’re in, it is not indicative of your value as a human being.”
Serrano insisted that the ban should be approved because she said babies can feel pain at 20 weeks.
“There are viable babies. If you identify as progressive and if you identify as truly wanting to be informed about the truth, then all you have to do is look at science,” she said. “It shows that these viable babies can survive outside of the mother’s womb.”
Serrano said that the University is becoming an arena for the abortion debate because activists are trying to sway the college vote into their favor. But she said some protesters are misinforming the University community.
“I think it’s becoming the battleground for the abortion debate because a lot of people think that this ban is about all abortions,” she said. “They’re really misinformed about what this ban is all about. Most people at UNM would identify as pro-choice, so they’re worried that we’re trying to eliminate all abortions, when in reality, we’re trying to eliminate abortions from five months and beyond.”
But Petersburg said banning late-term abortions in the city would be a gateway for a total ban for all abortions.
“You go for things that people are confused about. You get your foot on the door, and then you abolish abortions,” Petersburg said. “What this movement wants to see is really taking us back to the days when women are subordinated by men. Forced motherhood is female enslavement.”
Petersburg said she urges students to reject the ordinance. She said her organization will continue be active in support of late-term abortion providers in the city.
“There’s a need to just tell the truth on the streets,” she said. “There’s some contributing to the stigma on abortion on this side of the pro-choice movement … Abortion is essential. It’s a moral choice. It’s a responsible choice. And it is essential to whether women are going to be free.”
Polls open at 7 a.m. tomorrow and will run until 7 p.m. The nearest voting location to UNM is the Isotopes Park at 1601 Avenida Cesar Chavez S.E. Voters should bring a valid photo ID to the polling locations.
