Ex-ABQ Mayor Marty Chavez to SD Governor: ‘We don’t care if we make you sick’ with COVID-19
On Monday and Tuesday, former Democrat Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez took to Twitter to defend the policies of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and to go after Republican governors with whom he disagrees.
Early Tuesday morning, Chavez responded to a Twitter video from Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem giving South Dakotans information on how they can slow the spread of coronavirus. He wrote in response, “North Dakota – we don’t care if we make you sick.” Chavez apparently meant to direct his aggression at South Dakotans, despite him writing “North Dakota.”
Gov. Noem has not issued a mandated “stay-at-home” order for her state, despite heavy criticism from Democrats, despite the measures put in place by Noem have cut initial projected infection rates in South Dakota. Noem says Dr. Anthony Fauci has applauded her response to COVID-19.
Noem’s response differs greatly to New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s mandates, including a stay-at-home order, and State Police is tasked with enforcing the guidelines by citing businesses disobeying the order, with civil penalties of up to $5,000.
Lujan Grisham has taken heavy criticism in recent days over banning church gatherings the day before Easter Sunday and allowing abortion facilities to kill babies through abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the CDC guidelines to “Delay inpatient and outpatient elective surgical and procedural cases.” Abortion is never medically necessary and thus is an elective procedure.
But despite the deadly pandemic, Chavez is defending the Governor’s proposals, writing on Twitter in response to a Republican U.S. Senate candidate decrying the Governor’s order, “Your solution being to allow mass gatherings as long as people are praying? Hilarious.” It appears Chavez is mocking people of faith for praying on Easter, a Constitutionally-protected religious freedom.
On Monday, Legacy Church in Albuquerque filed a lawsuit against the State of New Mexico for violating their First Amendment right to religious freedom.
In response to a commenter criticizing Lujan Grisham keeping abortion clinics open while banning church services, Chavez wrote, “A doctor and his or her patient making an important health care decision versus 300 or so people who gather, infect and spread killer disease to thousands. Not really the same.”
Chavez’s tweet may be seen by many as ironic, since abortion is the act of killing a human baby through unnatural measures, while he is trying to make the case that the “important health care decision” to kill the child is necessary during a deadly pandemic.
On Good Friday, Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) late-term abortion clinic had a full parking lot, thanks to the governor’s order. SWO ends babies’ lives up-to and after 7 months gestational age.