Whole Woman's Health opens clinic in Albuquerque

Whole Woman's Health today opens a clinic in Albuquerque, nine months after the Supreme Court decision that removed the federal right to an abortion and forced the closure of four of its facilities in Texas.

The opening comes just after a state legislative session in which bills were passed to shore up protections for abortion providers, and $10 million was allocated for another abortion clinic to open in Las Cruces in the south of the state.

Since abortion was banned or severely restricted in states including New Mexico's neighbors Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma, demand for the procedure is expected to grow here, where the procedure remains legal. Whole Woman's Health said in a statement that 50,000 Texans seek abortion care annually.

The organization raised $300,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to relocate its Texas services to New Mexico. The new facility will, for now, provide abortions up to 18 weeks of gestational age, and has plans to expand up to 24 weeks in the near future.