Judge halts efforts by city of Eunice to sue the state over abortion access

A judge has stayed a lawsuit filed by the city of Eunice, after the city tried to sue the state over a law related to access to reproductive and transgender healthcare.

In a hearing Tuesday, Judge Lee A. Kirksey of the Fifth Judicial District Court granted the state’s request to stay a lawsuit filed by the city of Eunice in April.

In that lawsuit, the small city sued Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez. It sought to overturn a new state law prohibiting municipalities from restricting an individual’s right to access reproductive healthcare. In the suit, the city cites a 19th century federal law known as the Comstock Act, which restricts abortion but has been largely dormant for decades.

Attorney General Torrez then filed a motion in May asking the district court to refrain from acting on Eunice’s lawsuit until the state supreme court rules on a case the attorney-general previously filed against several communities in eastern New Mexico who sought to restrict access to abortion care, also citing the Comstock Act.

The attorney general’s motion was granted, and Eunice’s lawsuit will not proceed for now. The Supreme Court has stayed all the other local ordinances and will consider their legality in a hearing that is yet to be scheduled.