United States Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez (New Mexico, District 3) visited the Taos Plaza on July 4 to rally voters for the upcoming November midterm elections. Dozens of people attended, including Taos Mayor Pascual Maestas.
“We’ve got to come out extra hard this November to make sure our representative gets another term in office,” Maestas said in an introductory speech to the crowd.
Representative Fernandez presented a short speech to the crowd about the importance of voter participation against an opposition dedicated to stripping rights away from Americans in moves such as the Supreme Court’s recent Roe v. Wade decision.
“Constitutional rights are being stripped from women and they are saying they’re coming for the rest of us. We are saying we won’t go back,” the representative proclaimed to a cheering crowd.
Questa Del Rio News managed to get a moment with the Representative to ask her two questions regarding the Democratic Party’s intentions to codify abortion rights with legislation.
“I think what is really important is to work closely at the state level and at the federal level to codify Roe, that’s something that the Democrats in New Mexico are planning to do as I understand… [A women] needs to make those decisions in discussions with her healthcare provider as well as those she loves…I’ve already voted in the House for the Women’s Heath Protection Act, we want the Senate to do the same.”
Questa Del Rio News also asked Rep. Fernandez, “What would you say to liberal and left-leaning Americans who are frustrated with the Democratic Party for not legislating on abortion rights sooner like, for instance, when the party had a majority under President Barack Obama about a decade ago?”
“We need to focus on what we need to do now. If we start wringing our hands about what we could have done or should have, could have, would have, we are not going to accomplish our goal. We need to focus on what needs to be accomplished,” Fernandez responded.
One can listen to the full conversation between the Questa Del Rio News and Representative Fernandez here: https://soundcloud.com/dylan-r-n-crabb/usrepfernandez-wav. The representative’s voting record on the Women’s Health Protection Act is available to the public here: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2021295.
