NM Democrats Hijack Special Session to Push Abortion Funding and Vaccine Mandates in Defiance of Federal Policies

By Bud Shaver,

​Albuquerque, New Mexico- On Thursday, October 2, 2025 a two-day emergency special session of the New Mexico legislature abruptly ended. New Mexico Democrats hijacked the session to force taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood and to alter vaccine requirements under the New Mexico Department of Health, defying federal recommendations.

Despite efforts by New Mexico Republicans to use the emergency session primarily to address crime—a key point of contention for Senator Jay Block and other Republican lawmakers—Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham limited the agenda to other issues, excluding proposals related to crime prevention, public safety, education and difficulties accessing legitimate healthcare providers.

In fact, before the New Mexico special session began—and as the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that states may cut off funding to Planned Parenthood while the Trump administration worked to end its Medicaid funding—Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham stubbornly declared:

New Mexico will not abandon women and families when Republicans in Washington fail them. Access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare is a fundamental right and a public health necessity. That’s why we’re directing state resources to ensure Medicaid patients continue receiving the full spectrum of reproductive health services through Planned Parenthood and other qualified providers without interruption.”

• State to cover costs after Planned Parenthood cuts go through

During this brief emergency session, New Mexico Democrats moved to cover the costs that the federal government recently stripped from Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion provider, effectively keeping their doors open at state taxpayers’ expense.

According to KUNM,

House Republicans expressed fierce opposition to a $3 million earmark in the bill for nonprofit health care providers. That funding could flow in part to Planned Parenthood, which performs abortion services and has seen its federal funding cut by the Trump administration."

Another tragic reality that came to light during this emergency session is that, due to the New Mexico Democrats’ radical expansion of abortion services, there were more abortions in 2023 than live births in the state during both fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

This was revealed by Senator Jim Townsend in a post on X.

I was told yesterday that there were more abortions in New Mexico last year than there were life births. What a horrible statistic to bear.

— Jim Townsend (@Sen34townsend) October 4, 2025

 This reality was confirmed by ChatGPT:

Vaccine Mandate

New Mexico Democrats also used this emergency session to bypass federal standards regulating vaccines and placed them under state control.

Here is an analysis of Senate Bill 3 by KUNM, 

The bill would shift the standard for children’s immunization requirements, as well as recommendations for the statewide vaccine purchasing program and mandatory insurance coverage, away from federal bodies like the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, to state authorities like the New Mexico Department of Health, and physician groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics.  

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who made sweeping changes to federal vaccine policy this year — fired all 17 members of ACIP in June and replaced them with his own appointees.  

The legislative measure faced opposition from some Republicans, including Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, who told the Senate that conflicting data from multiple authorities would increase vaccine skepticism." 

Despite fierce opposition from minority Republican legislators and many New Mexican families, this legislation passed along party lines.

According to Vince Torres, former Chief of Staff of the New Mexico Senate Republicans,

Under this proposal, it appears NM children could be forced to get vaccines not required anywhere else in the country. 

It’s also concerning that a private group like AAP [American Academy of Pediatrics], which is vulnerable to heavy lobbying pressure from pharmaceutical companies, would be given such tremendous influence over NM’s vaccine schedule."

Torres continued,

It’s also worth noting that the AAP, whom we would be taking vaccine direction from, has gone on record saying religious exemptions should be abolished."

Criticism of vaccine requirements includes concerns about the high doses administered to infants, which some claim may have contributed to the rise in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), autism, pediatric cancers, other chronic illnesses, and more recently, pregnancy complications linked to the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the Pinon Post,

Ultimately Democrats passed all five bills: House Bill 1, appropriating $162 million in spending; House Bill 2, expanding subsidized insurance coverage; Senate Bill 1, broadening rural-health grants; Senate Bill 2, restoring Metro Court jurisdiction in competency cases; and Senate Bill 3, a controversial rewrite of the state’s vaccine-policy framework."

Tara Shaver, spokeswoman for Abortion Free New Mexico issued the following statement,

New Mexico Democrats are completely out of touch with average Americans. Most people do not want their tax dollars funding abortions, and they want greater control over their own health decisions and those of their children. Parents—not the government—are best suited to determine what is in their children’s best interests regarding health and vaccines. The hypocrisy of New Mexico Democrats is laughable. They speak out of both sides of their mouths—claiming to care about families and children when addressing vaccine policies, while simultaneously funding abortions, the literal killing of children across the state with New Mexico tax dollars."

• RELATED: ABORTION FREE NEW MEXICO VACCINE WHISTLEBLOWER INVESTIGATIONS NAMED #1 TOP PRO-LIFE REPORTS OF 2021