I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The family of slain abortion provider Dr. George Tiller announced Tuesday that his Kansas clinic will close permanently. Activists on both sides of the abortion issue expressed regret that the closure was the result of violence, but beyond there was no consensus as to the long-term implications of the closure.
Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, issued a statement lamenting that access to abortion has been curbed because of violence, intimidation and harassment.
It is unacceptable that anti-abortion intimidation and violence has led to the closing of Dr. Tiller’s clinic. It illustrates the ongoing harassment endured by abortion providers and the resulting disservice to women across this country. Not only have we lost a fearless defender of women’s fundamental health and rights in Dr. Tiller’s murder, but the closing of his clinic leaves an immediate and immense void in the availability of abortion. Persistent harassment including violence, threats, and intimidation, and legal restrictions on abortion, deter new doctors from entering the field and force skilled physicians out. The Center for Reproductive Rights hopes that other doctors will be brave enough to come forward and continue Dr. Tiller’s critical work of providing services to women. We also call on supporters of abortion rights — including our elected officials — across the country to stand up and defend reproductive healthcare providers in their communities.
In Albuquerque, Dauneen Dolce of the Right to Life Committee of New Mexico said it is a “very good piece of news,” that the clinic will close. In an interview Tuesday, Dolce told NMI:
Closing the clinic is what we were after all the time. The killing of Dr. Tiller is negative for our movement because we’re all blamed for this horrible action, but the closing of the clinic — we all work on that on a daily basis… It may have been closed with or without this happening.
Dolce said she disagreed with some antiabortion activists, including Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, who publicly wondered whether the closure would help or hinder their movement.
On Sunday, before Dr. Tiller’s family had announced that the clinic’s temporary closure would become permanent, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue expressed anguish about that possibility to the New York Times, saying, “Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason… Every kook in the world will get some notion.”
But in a statement posted Tuesday on the organization’s Web site, Newman conveyed a more nuanced tone: “This is a bittersweet moment for us at Operation Rescue. We have worked very hard for this day, but we wish it would have come through the peaceful, legal channels that we were pursuing.”
In 2002, Newman moved the headquarters of Operation Rescue to Wichita in order to be closer to Dr. Tiller and the clinic, which the group aggressively targeted.
