Abortion-rights demonstrators protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade during a rally outside the Federal Courthouse in downtown Las Vegas Friday, June 24, 2022
Saturday, June 25, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Las Vegas activist Donna West, 65, remembers as a young teen pooling her allowance with a group of friends to help a friend get a back-alley abortion. After the procedure, the friend was bleeding and had to be taken to a hospital, West said.
With the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision guaranteeing women the right to an abortion, West is worried the country will see a return to those days.
The ruling clears the way for states to severely restrict or ban abortions.
“We’re not there today, but do we end up there?” West said. “I remember all too vividly what that was like for women.”
“Women would bleed to death, hurt themselves, cause such damage to their own bodies attempting an abortion where afterward they couldn’t have children,” she said.
West, who has pushed for abortion access for 50 years and advocated for it to be successfully codified in Nevada law in the 1990s, said she feared Republicans would push for even more restrictions on women’s rights.
“I thought I was prepared for this decision, but it has rocked me to my core,” she said. “I’ve gone from crying to being just livid.”
“Women are going to have to travel a long way, spend days away from family at great expense in order to get a medical procedure,” West said.
Lindsey Harmon, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada, said she expected to see an increase in the number of women coming from out of state to seek abortions in Nevada.
Planned Parenthood is working to improve access in Nevada by hiring more people and expanding locations.
“We’re doing everything we can right now to make sure we can serve patients who are coming in from out of state,” Harmon said. “But make no mistake about it, this is going to be a national public health crisis.”
People of color, those living in rural communities and people on Medicaid will be more affected by the ruling, Harmon said.
The Wild West Access Fund, which was started last year, helps women from Nevada and other states access abortion services, the group’s president, Macy Haverda, said.
With about 22 states having trigger laws that will rapidly restrict abortions, the group is examining the ramifications and liabilities for people who help women from those states get an abortion, Haverda said.
“It doesn’t change anything for our actual operations of helping Nevadans’ access to abortion care,” Haverda said. “Our organization isn’t going anywhere. We are having to look into, re-evaluating, how we can help people from other states. At minimum, we are here for Nevadans. That is not the ceiling. That is the floor.”
While the decision is “devastating,” Harmon said, it might motivate some people to take action politically.
“This is going to get people fired up, and we’re not taking anything for granted,” Harmon said. “Now is a time for Congress to act, for individual states to act, for individual people to act to protect our rights to our own bodily autonomy.”
Meanwhile, Melissa Clement, the executive director of Nevada Right to Life, praised the court’s decision as “correct and will allow states to pass pro-life legislation,” but noted there was more work to be done to prevent abortion.
“It is imperative that people work hard, now, to elect pro-life legislators in state legislatures and in Congress to pass pro-life law,” Clement said in an emailed statement.
