Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Abortion Rights Proponents Attack Ensign

Ensign said he was unaware until Monday that Sonia Joya, his Southern Nevada district director, has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Life Line program since January.

In a March 22 letter, Ensign urged Clark County commissioners to allocate federal community block grant development funds to the program.

Ensign, R-Nev., said he did not mean to put pressure on anyone. He said he and county commissioners routinely lobby each other on various issues.

The county committee that recommends the block grants failed to include Life Line.

Democratic commissioners Erin Kenny and Yvonne Atkinson Gates called the letter inappropriate, saying Ensign had put them in an awkward position since he could play a role in determining federal allocations to the county.

Life Line targets teen pregnancies and offers free pregnancy testing. It also provides parenting training, family and job counseling, academic classes, day care, housing assistance, clothing and baby supplies.

"We are not pro-choice or pro-life. We are pro-family," said Executive Director Lynn Richmond-Scales. She said her program does not give abortion or adoption counseling.

Ruth McGroarty, the program's president and founder, was a leader in the anti-abortion movement in 1990, when Nevada voters approved a ballot question that ensured women have a right to have an abortion in the state.

Ensign said he was unaware of McGroarty's background, but that it didn't affect his opinion of her program.

"What they do touched my heart," he said. "The program works. Period."

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