Abortion providers announce moves to NM
A large abortion provider in Texas is fundraising in order to move to New Mexico. In its GoFundMe, Whole Woman’s Health says it is packing up its clinics in McAllen, Fort Worth, McKinney and Austin in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Texas’ subsequent implementation of a 1925 complete ban on abortions. “While we continue to do everything in our power to fight for abortion rights and access, Texas has banned abortion entirely throughout the state in response to the fall of Roe,” WWH’s fundraiser reads. “We know that this ban will not stop the need for abortion care, and our patients need a Whole Woman’s Health to go to now that Texas has cruelly taken away this basic healthcare need.” The clinic already provides virtual services in New Mexico; opening a brick-and-mortar facility here, it says “will allow us to provide first and second trimester abortions to people from Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and elsewhere in the South where safe, legal abortion care is restricted. In addition, New Mexicans are also going to struggle with access as their local clinics book up with patients traveling from out-of-state. The good news is that abortion is legally protected in New Mexico with no harmful restrictions that could hinder our highly-trained staff from providing the compassionate, high-quality care we’re known for in our communities.” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, at the end of June, enacted via executive order protections for both abortion providers and those seeking reproductive health care in the state.
Whole Woman’s Health isn’t the only provider anticipating increased reproductive health care needs in New Mexico. The California-based telehealth clinic Choix (pronounced “Choice”), which describes itself as “a telehealth clinic focused on abortion and other sexual and reproductive healthcare,” and has been described elsewhere as an “abortion pill startup,” recently announced it is now licensed in New Mexico and accepting new patients (Choix also serves California, Colorado and Illinois). In a news release, the company says its goal is to serve every state where abortion care is legal by the end of 2023. “New Mexico is a natural next step for Choix given its increasing need for safe and affordable access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion care,” Choix CEO Cindy Adam said in a statement. “As a telehealth clinic, Choix can alleviate capacity issues by supporting people in New Mexico who are interested in abortion pills and other services. This can help local clinics to reserve in-person visits for patients who require or prefer in-person care or are traveling from out of state.”
City announces revamped trash/recycling schedule
Starting next month, the City of Santa Fe will be revamping its pick-up schedule for residential trash and recycling collection and moving to a four-day Monday through Thursday schedule. According to a city news release, the change—which goes into effect Aug.15—comes as a result of a “multi-year route optimization project” the Environmental Services Division worked on with waste management software company Rubicon (both ESD and Rubicon are featured in a video released last year by Amazon Web Series, “Santa Fe: The Road to Zero Waste,” that discusses the route optimization project). “The City of Santa Fe is growing and changing, and these new routes utilize smart technology to adapt to those changes and make our operations more efficient,” ESD Director Shirlene Sitton said in a statement. “The optimized routes and collection schedule help move us toward our sustainability goals, accommodate future growth in the city and demonstrate ESD’s commitment not only to providing the best possible service for residential customers, but also to supporting and investing in the critical staff who make such services possible.” Under the new schedule, almost all residents in the Friday collection zone will move to Thursday, and most other residential customers will also see changes to their collection days. (You can download the new collection map or use this interactive map to search for a specific residential address). In addition, the city will no longer collect residential trash and recycling on holidays; instead, when a holiday occurs, no residential collection will take place on that day and that day’s collection will move to the next consecutive day of the week. Depending on what day the holiday falls on, the remaining collection days move forward as well. Yes, reminders will be sent. No, commercial collection schedules will not be affected.
Health equity task force seeks feedback
The New Mexico Public Health Task Force is taking public comment through July 15 on draft recommendations from a report issued last month. That report grew out of a House Memorial passed last year tasking DOH with creating potential strategies for improving public health infrastructure in the state. The report notes that the COVID-19 pandemic “continued to highlight the importance of investing in public health infrastructure, as well as the need to address the causes of long-standing health inequities, such as structural racism and historical mistrust…” Recommendations include developing policies and processes to increase and improve data collection as it relates to health equity; using “a racial equity lens in all aspects of data collection, analysis, and dissemination”; and recognizing climate change as a “top public health priority and address climate change as a health hazard.” The latter goal comes with specific funding requests from the task force, as do three other of its recommendations related to local health councils; communication; and work force. Comments are due by 5 pm, July 15; questions or concerns can be directed to Health Equity Director T. Justin Garoutte at justin.garoutte@state.nm.us.
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 621; 568,434 total cases
Deaths: seven; Santa Fe County has had 318 total deaths thus far; there have been 7,957 total fatalities statewide. Statewide Hospitalizations: 185. Patients on ventilators: 15.
Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends, for the seven-day period of June 27-July 3, Grant County had the highest daily case rate per 100,000 population: 73.3, followed by San Juan County at 66.7 and McKinley County at 60.9; Santa Fe County’s case rate was 49.4, down from 57.8 last week. In total, the health department reports 6,344 cases during that seven-day period, a 7.7% decline from the week prior
Community levels: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly community levels report, which uses case rates along with two hospital metrics in combination for its framework, for the seven-day period of June 23-29, 10 counties—including Santa Fe County, which was yellow last week—have “red” or high levels (four more than last week). Among other recommendations, the CDC recommends indoor masking for communities with high levels. Nine counties are “green,” aka low, and the rest are “yellow,” or medium. The CDC will update its map later today.Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. Vaccines for children: Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years can now schedule appointments for vaccinations at VaccineNM.org.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
Got something to say about life in a post-Roe world? Weigh in today at 8 am when KUNM’s Let’s Talk New Mexico focuses on New Mexico’s role in the country’s abortion landscape. Share your questions and concerns by emailing LetsTalk@kunm.org or calling in live during the show to (505) 277-5866. Guests will include State Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque; American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Nadia Cabrera-Mazzeo; Adrienne Mansanares, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains; Tewa Women United Executive Director Corrine Sanchez; Joan LaMunyon Sanford, executive director of the New Mexico Religious Coalition For Reproductive Choice; and Dr. Amber Truehart, clinical director at the University of New Mexico Center for Reproductive Health.
Shining example
Entrepreneur magazine spotlights Santa Fe-based Shine Pet Food founder Sandra Bosben in its July edition as a business owner who “sweat every C02 molecule,” to develop a sustainable business. Bosben hadn’t intended to start a pet business, but did so after adopting her dog Marty (whom she met at a Starbucks when he jumped out of a truck filled with dogs up for adoption). Marty had health issues, so Bosben consulted with experts on how to make his grub from scratch, which ultimately led her to found Marty’s Meals (now called Shine Pet Food). From the start, Bosben wanted to minimize the carbon footprint of feeding dogs and cats, which research shows creates the equivalent of 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. She also had to tackle the issue of packaging, shipping and funding in ways that aligned with her company’s values. “With every decision, you go through this checklist: ‘How can I provide the highest quality, best value, most sustainable product—and still make a profit?’” Bosben tells the magazine. “But from that flows all kinds of options and opportunities.” Marty lived to be 16. Bosben’s new puppy is named—you guessed it—Shine.
Find the lion
A 2019 photo showing an elk being stalked by a Mountain Lion in the Rio Mora National Wildlife and Refuge Conservation Area (in Watrous) received some delayed national glory this week. The refuge first shared the photograph in July 2020; it was captured as part of a monitoring project looking at the success of restoring arroyos at the refuge and shows an elk in the foreground of an arroyo and a mountain lion hidden in the background. That July post challenged viewers to find the lion and garnered more than 10,000 comments and shares. Last weekend, Travel Guide Book re-shared the image, which then caught the attention of USA Today, which featured it (and the comments) in its “For the Win” section this week (you can also see Rio Mora’s full series of photos from July 2020 here). USA Today understandably includes this comment from original poster Judy Hammond: “And that’s why we have our 6th sense, that gut feeling that we’re being watched or stalked. Always pay attention to your surroundings, especially if the hair on the back of your neck goes up.” If you’d like some more current photos from the refuge, be sure to check out refuge manager Anna Weyers Blades’ recent array of photos from both Rio Mora along with Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge and Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge, which she also helps manage.
Come back, monsoons!
A dry week continues: The National Weather Service forecasts sunny skies with a high near 88 degrees and northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thanks for reading! The Word is happy it’s bear season again (in Alaska, that is) and will be watching the bear cams on and off throughout the day (today’s animal-themed newsletter was not intentional btw).
