Summary
Rural New Mexico communities overwhelmingly support the right to make personal decisions about abortion, contraception, and gender-affirming care—but access to real healthcare is shrinking. Religious refusals, Catholic hospital expansion, and private equity takeovers are leaving patients with fewer options while anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” grow. Even in New Mexico’s most faithful counties, people are pushing for care that reflects compassion, respect, and autonomy. This blog explores the clash between corporate greed, religious restrictions, and community values—and why we need protections and investments in real healthcare now.
There’s a myth that people in rural communities don’t support abortion rights or reproductive freedom; but that’s not true in New Mexico. In fact, 84% of people in rural New Mexico say they respect others’ right to make their own decisions about abortion, even if they personally disagree.
But here’s the problem: access to care in rural areas is shrinking, while religiously affiliated providers are expanding. In many communities, there’s only one hospital or clinic within driving distance and if that provider refuses to offer abortion, contraception, or gender-affirming care, people are left with nothing.
That gap between what people believe and what care is actually available reveals the quiet crisis unfolding in communities like Portales, Gallup, and Shiprock, where limited healthcare options collide with religious restrictions.
That’s where private equity takeovers come in. In July, we called out the private equity takeover of New Mexico’s healthcare system. We warned how profit motives are replacing people-centered care, especially in rural communities. This is already hurting access to reproductive and gender-affirming care, and it’s made worse by religious health care providers who deny essential services in the name of their beliefs. If you haven’t read the first piece, start here.
Religious hospital systems and companies are already limiting care
Religious healthcare refusals are legal in New Mexico. That means hospitals can deny services like birth control, tubal ligations, abortion, and gender-affirming care based on “moral” objections. In practice, this allows institutions, not patients, to decide what care is appropriate.
And it’s not just theory. Nationally, one in six hospital beds is in a Catholic hospital. Many of which follow religious directives that ban basic reproductive and gender-affirming care. In rural New Mexico, where healthcare options are already limited, these refusals hit even harder. People are forced to delay their visit, travel, or give up on care altogether. And when the only clinic in town is faith-based, there’s often nowhere else to go.
Recent federal rulings only add to the confusion and harm. In one case, a judge struck down a Trump-era rule that let employers deny birth control coverage based on religion. While this was a win for access, a separate ruling just upheld the right of Catholic healthcare systems to deny gender-affirming care, reinforcing the legal shield for religious refusals. What’s also looming is the larger movement behind so-called “religious refusals” is still growing. These efforts aren’t about liberty, they’re about making it legal to discriminate against patients based on who they are or what care they need. National anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ groups, often aligned with MAGA politicians, are reframing this agenda as “religious liberty.” In practice, it means letting institutions impose their beliefs on patients, denying basic reproductive and gender-affirming care under the guise of faith.
Private equity makes the “religious refusals” problem worse
Private equity is buying up clinics and hospitals across the state, especially in rural New Mexico. These out-of-state investors don’t answer to patients, they answer to profit. The result? Fewer services, higher costs, and closures that leave communities stranded.
That’s exactly what’s happening at Christus St. Vincent in Santa Fe. While the hospital still uses its faith-based name and collects donations from the public, the healthcare workers actually providing care are now employed by a private equity–backed staffing firm, following a controversial joint venture deal. The outside looks familiar, but inside, it’s a different story. Anchorum, the “community foundation” that used to own half the hospital, still holds influence while acting as a charitable partner—raising major questions about transparency and accountability. The shift puts profits first and people last. And it’s part of a broader trend that ranked New Mexico as the most vulnerable state in the country from harm to private equity ownership in healthcare systems.
For rural patients, this means fewer services, longer wait times, and less access to compassionate, comprehensive care. And this distress extends far beyond reproductive health. We’re seeing restrictions on gender-affirming care, denials of end-of-life care based on religious directives, and increased barriers for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and low-income patients.
Fake clinics fill the gap with misleading services
While legitimate clinics are struggling or closing, anti-abortion centers (also known as “fake clinics” or “crisis pregnancy centers”) are growing. These centers pose as medical providers but offer no real healthcare. Instead, they use shame, misinformation, and religious pressure to stop people from getting abortions or even contraception. And they intentionally target rural areas, knowing that people there have fewer options and face more barriers—like limited transportation, higher costs, and poor internet access.
Where Do We Go From Here?
When religious institutions control healthcare policy, and private equity controls the workforce, the most vulnerable pay the price. The illusion of a trusted hospital masks a system where patients have fewer choices and less agency to their own body, autonomy and care. And when people can’t trust that a hospital will offer the services they need, they’re left with few or even no options. When private equity and religious institutions dominate healthcare, patients—like our family members, neighbors, and community—lose twice: they’re priced out of the care they need and denied essential services based on someone else’s beliefs.
In New Mexico, where Catholic-affiliated systems are growing and private equity is deepening their control, we need local protections now more than ever. We don’t have to accept this.
Rural communities in New Mexico have made it clear that they want healthcare that respects their choices and reflects their values. In the rural survey referred to earlier, the survey reports that 78% of Catholics, 65% of Protestants, and 72% of other Christians in New Mexico said they respect the right to make one’s own decisions about abortion, even if they personally disagree.
And this shift is not just happening in cities, even in New Mexico’s most church-going and faithful counties, people are progressing and elevating their own views. Many rural Catholics, including Hispanic and Latine families with long traditions of faith, are showing that lived values of compassion and respect matter more than traditional viewpoints.
National data backs that up: a 2025 Pew Research study found that 84% of U.S. Catholics believe the church should allow birth control, 60% of U.S. Catholics say the church “should be more inclusive, even if that means changing some of its teachings.” For many Hispanic and Latino Catholics in New Mexico, lived faith looks more similar than we think when compared to the rest of the country.
What does this all mean in practice? It means real clinics, not religious rules. It means public investment in care that meets people where they are, not private equity cutting corners. We need to fund and support providers who actually offer the full range of reproductive experiences— including abortion, contraception, miscarriage management, gender affirming care and transition-related services.
It’s also time for state and local leaders to hold hospitals accountable in making sure that care is centered on people, not profits or religious doctrine. We protect our freedom by standing together, demanding real care, and refusing to let anyone, whether it’s a corporation or a church, decide what’s best for our bodies and our lives.