OKLAHOMA

High court keeps anti-abortion laws on hold while challenge is pending

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Supreme Court reiterated its position on Nov. 14 in a 5-4 opinion that the state constitution guarantees a woman’s right to an abortion when necessary to preserve her life, although the procedure remains illegal in virtually all other cases.

In a case involving a legal challenge to five separate anti-abortion bills passed by the Legislature in 2021, the court ordered a lower court to keep in place a temporary ban on three of those laws while the merits of the case are considered. Two of the laws were already put on hold by a district court judge.

The three laws addressed by the court include: requiring physicians performing an abortion to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology; requiring physicians administering abortion drugs to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital; and requiring an ultrasound 72 hours before administering abortion drugs.

A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said their office is reviewing the court’s decision and will respond accordingly.

Abortion providers stopped performing the procedure in Oklahoma in May 2022 after Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law what was then the strictest abortion ban in the country. About a month later, the U.S. Supreme Court stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion, which led to abortion bans in more than 20 states.

The number of abortions performed in Oklahoma immediately dropped dramatically, falling from about 4,145 in 2021 to 898 in 2022, according to statistics from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In at least 66 cases in 2022, the abortion was necessary to avert the death of the mother, the statistics show.

NEW MEXICO

Generational commitment needed to solve safety issues, AG says

ALBUQUERQUE – It will take a generational commitment to solve New Mexico’s public safety problems, the state’s top prosecutor said on Nov. 3, urging policymakers to listen to those on the ground who are working with people in need of mental health services.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez spent hours listening to providers and other experts from around the state. It was the second such summit Torrez had hosted. The first in September brought together law enforcement officers and prosecutors to share ideas for curbing violent crime.

The meetings come as New Mexico continues to grapple with a crime rate that remains well above the national average. Torrez said most violent crime has its roots in child abuse and neglect, substance abuse and intergenerational trauma – all problems that are addressed now in silos, with professionals working separately.

The attorney general’s office said it plans to use what has been learned during the meetings to make recommendations to the governor and state lawmakers in hopes of creating a comprehensive public safety package ahead of the legislative session in January.

The session will be focused on budget issues, and Torrez said there will be no shortage of resources that lawmakers can funnel toward more efficient programs as New Mexico stands to see another financial windfall from record-breaking oil and gas production.

Mental health providers who were at the summit said lawmakers are universally supportive of making it easier for people in their communities to access services.

Energy regulator who led methane crackdown leaving post

SANTA FE – A top state regulator of the petroleum industry in New Mexico who helped implement new restrictions on methane pollution and waste is leaving her post at year’s end, the governor’s office announced on Nov. 9.

Sarah Cottrell Propst is ending her five-year tenure as secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department – a period that saw an unprecedented expansion of oil and natural gas production. New Mexico is the nation’s No. 2 oil producer.

Advanced oil-drilling techniques have unlocked massive amounts of natural gas from New Mexico’s portion of the Permian Basin, which extends into Texas, while producers sometimes struggle to fully gather and transport the gas.

State oil and gas regulators recently updated regulations to limit methane venting and flaring at petroleum production sites to rein in releases and unmonitored burning of the potent climate warming gas, with some allowances for emergencies and mandatory reporting.

Cottrell Propst has led an agency with more than 550 employees with responsibilities ranging from forest health to oversight of 35 state parks.

ARIZONA

Tribes fight US over proposed $10 billion renewable energy transmission line

Work on a $10 billion project that will funnel renewable energy across the West has come to a halt in southwestern Arizona, with Native American tribes saying the federal government has ignored concerns about effects that the SunZia transmission line will have on religious and cultural sites.

Federal land managers temporarily suspended work on the SunZia transmission project along a 50-mile segment in early November after the Tohono O’odham Nation asked for immediate intervention, saying bulldozers were clearing a stretch of the San Pedro Valley and that one or more historic site were demolished.

The tribe was joined in their plea by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and archaeologists. Zuni Pueblo in neighboring New Mexico and other tribes in the Southwestern U.S. also have raised concerns, saying the area holds cultural and historical significance for them as well.

Renewable energy advocates have said the SunZia project will be a key artery in the Biden administration’s plan for boosting renewables and improving reliability among the nation’s power grids. It will stretch about 550 miles from central New Mexico, transporting electricity from massive wind farms to more populated areas as far away as California.

Pattern Energy, the developer, has billed the SunZia project as an energy infrastructure undertaking bigger than the Hoover Dam.

Natalie McCue, Pattern Energy’s assistant vice president for environmental and permitting activities, said the company has worked to address tribal concerns over the years and that the transmission line will be parallel to existing infrastructure within the valley to minimize the impacts.

UTAH

Police investigate sexual assault allegation against man who inspired hit movie

SALT LAKE CITY – Police in Utah are looking into a woman’s claim that the founder of an anti-child-trafficking organization made famous by a movie last summer sexually assaulted her, the first known criminal investigation amid assault claims made against him by six women in two lawsuits.

The woman made the sexual assault claim against Tim Ballard to police in Lindon on Nov. 1, according to a police report The Salt Lake Tribune obtained through a records request.

Detectives arranged a meeting the next day, according to the report, which did not detail anything further about the investigation. The police chief of the town of about 10,000 confirmed there was an interview but declined to comment further, citing an active investigation.

Ballard, founder of Operation Underground Railroad, already faces a lawsuit filed by five women who say he sexually manipulated, abused and harassed them on overseas trips designed to lure and catch child sex traffickers.

The criminal investigation comes as Utah’s legislative auditor, at the request of state lawmakers, begins to look into Attorney General Sean Reyes’ office including whether Reyes’ long friendship with Ballard led to any state help for Operation Underground Railroad or “Sound of Freedom,” a film based on the organization’s activities that was a hit with conservative moviegoers last summer.

Ballard has denied the sexual assault allegations and did so again in a statement by Ken Krogue, president of The SPEAR Fund, an anti-trafficking organization where Ballard is now listed as a senior adviser.

Ballard resigned from Operation Underground Railroad amid the sexual assault allegations.

The complaints against Ballard center on a “couple’s ruse” he allegedly engaged in with women associated with Operation Underground Railroad who posed as his wife to fool child sex traffickers into thinking he was a legitimate client, according to the lawsuit filed by the five women in Utah state court.