New Mexico Acequia Association
UPDATE OCTOBER 2025: Our previous investigation of the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) revealed that the executive director, Paula Garcia, was an abortion, euthanasia, and LGBTQ activist and politician, and that the organization was an enthusiastic supporter of the virulently pro-abortion organization, Tewa Women United. The NMAA also remains a member of the Health Security for New Mexico Campaign, which promotes the use of contraceptives. That information will follow this update.
Our last report revealed that the NMAA had received 10 grants since 2007 for a collective amount of $455,000. Since then, the New Mexico Acequia Association has received 2 additional grants, including its most recent grant of $65,000 from the 2022-2023 fiscal year. This brings the total of CCHD grants received by the NMAA to $570,000.
In addition to what we have already reported, the New Mexico Acequia Association’s most recent violations of Catholic moral teaching (and CCHD grant guidelines) include:
- Paula Garcia retains her role as the executive director of NMAA.
- Continued support for Tewa Women United.
- Remains a member of the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign.
As of now, Paula Garcia retains her position at the NMAA according to their website and their most recent 990 filing from 2023, despite her campaign and the anti-Catholic tenets it represented.
In our previous NMAA investigation, we found that the NMAA’s website offers users a Women’s Declaration, which outlines the NMAA’s priorities. One of said priorities was a resolution that “we will support the work of Tewa Women United.”
Tewa Women United, as mentioned earlier in the update, is a very active abortion activism organization. On February 13 of 2020, TWU shared its dissent for the abortion bans in New Mexico at the time, referring to them as “outdated” and demanding abortion be made “safe and legal.”
TWU made a post on June 24, 2022, further cementing their adamant pro-abortion stance. They claim that the murder of children in the womb is somehow healthcare, and essential healthcare at that. They further say that they will combat pro-life legislation.
TWU, on March 22, 2020, partnered with the Full-Spectrum Doula Circle. This organization, and TWU, partnered in an effort to provide doulas with a course in “abortion support skills.” They also say they will be paying particular attention to people who identify as LGBTQ.
On May 15 of 2019, a previous TWU employee Jessica Lujan, and one current employee, Diana Halsey, were interviewed by the Full Spectrum Doula Spectrum where they shared a number of interesting and particularly damning points of intrigue in regards to TWU.
The podcast is a low-quality recording, so we are unable to definitively discern which of the women from TWU is answering so we will refer to them as TWU representatives. When the host asked about when TWU began integrating abortion into their program, one of the TWU representatives responded with, “Tewa Women United has always supported people’s abilities and rights to make their own reproductive choices, so that’s been something from the very beginning of our organization, and really, since the beginning of our program back in 2008.” (9:10-10:30) According to these two women, TWU has long been working at shifting policy and increasing abortion access since its inception.
Further examples of TWU’s inherent pro-abortion agenda include:
- 10:55-12:10 – TWU representative describes her experiences with the Doula abortion program and how she wants to make the Abortion-Doula-Care training program available to the entire state of New Mexico.
- 13:10-14:15 – The show host explains that she is, in fact, a teacher of an “abortion support skills” course and how she helped disseminate it to the indigenous population.
- 19:00-19:15 – TWU representative describes how their woman’s leadership and economics program provides sexual education to middle and high schoolers.
- 19:20-19:30 – TWU representative stresses the importance of providing reproductive choices to indigenous people.
- 20:20-20:30 – TWU refers to a child in the womb as a “baby” which gives further credence to TWU’s evil nature. They recognize life as such yet have no qualms about snuffing it out.
- 24:20-24:30 – TWU representative says TWU has worked with HealthConnectOne and Dona International, organizations that train doulas in providing abortion support.
- 27:05-27:15 – TWU representative says that her training as one of these abortion doulas was “one of the most incredible experiences in my life, it was really beautiful.”
One of the TWU representatives also states that TWU had worked with HealthConncect One in training their abortion doulas.
On October 9 2019, HealthConnect One posted a pro-abortion article on their Facebook, which attempts to justify abortion access for Latina women.
Dona International is a pro-abortion organization that, according to the podcast we referenced earlier, helped train TWU’s abortion doulas.
Dona also held a summit in 2022, where they had abortion doula Amy Chen as an event speaker.
Amy Chen is a “reproductive and sexual health access” advocate. Dona also says her areas of expertise include “expanding access to family planning and abortion services.”
Dona International has also engaged in online LGBTQ advocacy, as seen in this Facebook post from June 1, 2022, where the DONA team “acknowledge the discrimination LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people, face receiving healthcare and during family planning.”
On November 4, 2024, one of Dona’s members, Beata Pryszcz, is celebrated for her openness to LGBTQ+.
In this post from January 3, 2024, Dona International spoke about how their “Past President Nikia Lawson has played a crucial role in making doula care more available to expectant parents, especially LGBTQ+ and BIPOC families.”
The NMAA has remained a member of the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign. This campaign promotes the use of contraceptives. You can read about their contraceptive advocacy after this update.
Updated Conclusion: The New Mexico Acequia Association was deeply entwined in abortion and LGBTQ activist organizations and persons, and since then has shown no signs of altering its motivations. The NMAA has also not removed Paula Garcia from her position of executive director despite her involvement in numerous pro-abortion and LGBTQ organizations and causes. This new information further substantiates our previous claims and shows that CCHD has no interest or intention of halting Catholic funds from organizations attacking Catholic teaching. There is no excuse for the NMAA to have continued to receive funds after our previous revelations. For this reason, the Lepanto Institute is renewing its call for the USCCB to close down the CCHD permanently.
The Previous Report: New Mexico Acequia Association
NOTE: To download a PDF version of this report, please click here.
Since 2007, the (NMAA) has received ten grants from the USCCB’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), totaling $455,000, including its most recent grant of $50,000 for FY 2020-2021.
In 2010, the Reform CCHD Now coalition produced a report on the New Mexico Acequia Association. What was found was that it was a member of the pro-abortion “The Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign,” a supporter of the pro-abortion Tewa Women United organization, and NMAA helped draft the “Women’s Declaration” in 2007.
The Women’s Declaration is filled with odd spiritual references to “Mother Earth” and other forms of pagan mysticism. For instance, the preamble states:
“The earth community stands at a defining moment in time. Injustices, poverty, ignorance, corruption, crime and violence have deepened and our Earth Mother is suffering.”
In addition to that the beginning of the declaration makes decidedly non-Catholic theological statements, such as:
“Humanity is part of a vast evolving multiverse. Earth is our home and our mother is alive with a unique community of life givers. The life givers are Women. The protection of Women, their vitality and their well-being is the sacred fluid of love.”
The 32nd resolution of the declaration states, “32. Be it further resolved that we will support the work of Tewa Women United.”
Tewa Women United is a radically pro-abortion organization that declares that “abortion is health care.” Tewa Women United’s website is chalk full of pro-abortion and pro-contraception messages, but to give a succinct view of its commitment to abortion, this is what it tweeted in December of 2021.
Despite Tewa Women United’s (TWU) virulent commitment to abortion, NMAA has remained devoted to TWU throughout the years. Currently on NMAA’s website is an advertised opportunity for teens to participate in TWU’s “Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty program.”
Tewa Women United says that in creating the program, it partnered with Planned Parenthood to add “medically-accurate lessons about human anatomy, adolescent development, and age-appropriate sex ed.”
In part three of TWU’s breakdown of the A’Gin Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty program (advertised by NMAA), TWU makes is absolutely clear that the promotion of contraception is a big factor in the program.
Beyond all possible doubts, NMAA formally promoted a sex program for teens indoctrinating them with Planned Parenthood methodology in the use of contraception.
Also discovered in the former report by the Reform CCHD Now coalition is the fact that NMAA is a member of the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign.
In the minutes of the State of New Mexico Health Policy Commission meeting of January 14, 2005, the executive director for the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign called for “family planning” to be covered in the New Mexico Health Security Act.
In addition to all of this background (plus the new information regarding NMAA’s promotion of Tewa Women United’s contraception-promoting contraception program), the executive director of NMAA is a pro-abortion democrat who received a campaign endorsement from Planned Parenthood.
The executive director for NMAA is Paula Garcia.
In January of 2018, Garcia announced her decision to run for public office as a Representative in the New Mexico state government.
Just three months later, she obtained the full endorsement of the nation’s largest abortion chain, which called her a “Champion for Planned Parenthood.” According to the article announcing the endorsement, Planned Parenthood stated that those whom it endorsed pledged to support “access to reproductive health care, including abortion.” It then said that they “only endorse candidates who we know will be champions for Planned Parenthood.” In other words, there is no way Garcia received the endorsement of Planned Parenthood without specifically and personally stating her support for abortion and Planned Parenthood.
What is sadly obvious about this endorsement is that it is absolutely clear that while Planned Parenthood did its due diligence in vetting people, the CCHD either did not, or it simply turned a blind eye. Either way, Garcia’s endorsement from Planned Parenthood should come as no surprise to anyone, let alone the CCHD, considering the fact that in 2011, the Reform CCHD Now Coalition reported that Garcia had served two terms as the chair of the Mora County Democratic Party.
As Chair for the Democratic Party of Mora County, Garcia would have been bound to support the Democratic Party Platform of New Mexico, which included support for homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” “reproductive rights,” and even a “right to die.”
According to Guidestar, Garcia’s income as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Acequia Association was $65,129 in 2014, $63,663 in 2015, and $68,694 in 2016. Considering the fact that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has supplied $305,000 to this organization over the last 12 years, it is abundantly clear that the CCHD has been supplying Catholic funds to a known and active agent of the Democratic Party and a “Champion of Planned Parenthood.”
Conclusion
New Mexico Acequia Association has a long-standing relationship with Tewa Women United, an organization committed to abortion. In line with this relationship, NMAA published an opportunity for youth to participate in TWU’s contraception-promoting sex-ed program, which makes sense, considering the fact that NMAA’s executive director received a campaign endorsement from Planned Parenthood. The CCHD has known most of this for over a decade, and yet, NMAA continues to receive CCHD funding.
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