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New Mexico state Senate upholds dormant ban on abortion

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico state Senate has voted to uphold the state's dormant criminal ban on abortion.
The Democrat-led Senate voted 24-18 Thursday in opposition to eliminating the state prohibition on abortion. Advocates for abortion rights sought to remove the ban in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns a 1973 decision that made the procedure legal nationwide.
New Mexico is one of nine states that retain abortion bans that are not enforced because of the Supreme Court decision.
Abortion-rights advocates seized on Democratic gains in midterm elections to push to overturn the ban in a heavily Hispanic state with strong currents of Roman Catholicism. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham supported the failed bill.