Noel Smith
Noel Lyn Smith noo-el lin smith (she/her/hers)

Noel Lyn Smith is a graduate student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, studying investigative journalism. She has worked for the Farmington Daily Times and the Navajo Times, reporting about the Navajo Nation for more than a decade.

Sandy Harris, left, and Jonnette Paddy, right, with Indigenous Women Rising talk about abortion care and reproductive health with attendees at the “Women Are Sacred” conference on June 27, 2023 in Albuquerque, N.M. (Photo by Noel Lyn Smith/News21)

Indigenous communities navigate abortion after Roe

Abortion was never readily available to Indigenous women, and the reversal of Roe v. Wade made it worse. States with some of the largest Indigenous populations also have some of the strictest restrictions on abortion.

‘This is a long game’: A year after Roe, abortion access fight moves to blue states like New Mexico

As more states pass abortion bans, providers and patients have flocked to New Mexico, a sanctuary for abortion rights. The anti-abortion movement has followed.