Safe and legal abortion services are essential for women’s health care.  During the provision of high quality health care of any kind, situations sometimes arise that require transport to a hospital setting for further treatment. Our health centers are staffed by highly trained doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who make these decisions with patient safety in mind. Thankfully these circumstances are rare.  In these situations, it might be necessary to call 911 for transport to a hospital setting. 

 As part of their overall strategy to make abortion care less accessible, Operation Rescue has launched a new tactic in their campaign of harassment against New Mexico abortion providers. They are obtaining recordings of 911 calls made by providers and posting them on their website.  Further, they have filed a complaint against at least two providers with the New Mexico Medical Board based on those calls. 

 It is the responsibility of the Medical Board to respond to written complaints against physicians, but it is misleading for Operation Rescue to claim on their website that the State of New Mexico has “launched investigations into… late-term abortionists for … incidents of life-threatening abortion complications.”   

 Operation Rescue launched a series of complaints against Dr. George Tiller to the Kansas Board of Medicine in an attempt to defame his reputation. It appears that they are trying the same approach in New Mexico, as well as other states. At least one local news organization reported this story with a strong bias, possibly leaving viewers with the misimpression that abortion is not a safe health care service.

 This tactic of harassment stokes the dangerous flames of anti-choice rhetoric and should be soundly rejected by our fair-minded community.