Democratic state Representative Roger Montoya was recently denied endorsement from Planned Parenthood because he now supports forced parental notification of abortion. In the year that the Supreme Court is planning to overturn Roe v. Wade, attacking Planned Parenthood—an organization that has been dedicated to providing safe, accessible, life-saving abortion care to our state—undermines the values that we, as New Mexicans, hold true. When Rep. Montoya refused to even apply for an endorsement from Equality New Mexico, he made clear that this is also an attack on organizations like ours, which work to uplift and fight for these truly New Mexican values. A Majority of New Mexicans agree each of us can hold our own moral views on abortion and still trust pregnant people to make this decision for themselves.
There is no denying the direct connection between this policy, undermining bodily autonomy, and the work that EQNM is doing to protect trans youth from the increasing attacks that we have seen across the country. Everyone deserves to be in control of their own bodies, and this right extends to young pregnant people, too. If an elected policymaker doesn’t support bodily autonomy for young pregnant people, we can assume they also don’t support it for young LGBTQ people.
Rep. Montoya is an openly gay man who was endorsed by Equality New Mexico in 2020, and we cannot deny the historic moment his first election created for our communities. But now, he’s endangering the movement for LGBTQ liberation. At EQNM, we know that representation matters—but it is not enough. We need leaders who align with our values and will fight for us, not against us. No matter their identity or political alignment, we need leaders who won’t work against the hardworking advocacy organizations who are fighting to uphold our core beliefs as New Mexicans. And we certainly don’t need representatives who attack us for fighting for our communities.
As the fights for body autonomy play out in the future, we hope that people like Representative Montoya understand the necessity for coalition work. None of us can fight for liberation alone, because liberation does not belong to just one community. It’s times like these that it is crucial to remember, it’s all of us or none of us.