Abortion rights advocates protest a possible decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade at the Federal Courthouse in Downtown Las Vegas Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 | 2 a.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion, which will set the stage for abortion-rights battles across the nation with related laws determined by each state.
As it stands now, Nevada has a voter-affirmed statute that guarantees a woman's right to an abortion. And while it would be difficult to make changes, it would not be impossible.
Related content
Nevada voters in 1990 approved a ballot question on a statute, NRS 442.250, that outlined the conditions under which abortion was permitted in the state. The statute allows a woman to obtain an abortion by a physician within the first 24 weeks of a pregnancy. The question further stated that the statute “will remain in effect and cannot be changed, except by a direct vote of the people.”
In other words, opponents of abortion would have to launch a new statewide ballot initiative, collect the required number of signatures from registered voters across the state and then win a majority of votes in two successive general elections.
And Nevadans are overwhelmingly pro-abortion. An October 2021 poll from OH Predictive Insights of 770 registered voters in Nevada found that 69% lean toward supporting abortion rights and 31% lean anti-abortion.
“Regardless of what the Supreme Court’s final ruling is in the case,” said Lindsey Harmon, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada in a statement, “abortion rights are protected in Nevada by state statute.”
“That said, this is a galvanizing moment for the abortion rights movement in our state and across the country,” Harmon continued. “This leak has made it clear that the threat to abortion access across the country is not hypothetical.”
A majority of both chambers of the Nevada Legislature, Gov. Steve Sisolak, and five of six lawmakers in Nevada’s congressional delegation are Democrats who have vowed to protect abortion rights.
“In Nevada, we’re committed to protecting reproductive rights,” Sisolak posted on Twitter after a draft opinion in a Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, showing a majority of the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe was leaked to Politico. “I’ve signed legislation affirming this right and expanding access to healthcare. And as long as I’m Governor, I’ll continue to do so.”
In a media call Tuesday afternoon, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, whose office joined an amicus brief in the Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, reaffirmed his fight to protect reproductive rights.
“Let me be crystal clear to any Nevadan who is listening to this message: If you need reproductive health services, make that appointment with your doctor,” Ford said. “We will protect your right to make decisions with your doctor about what is best for your health, your family and your future.”
Ford said that while the right to an abortion was protected in Nevada, there was still cause for concern.
“A federal ban on abortion could supersede our law, or a future governor’s administration or a state legislature hostile to abortion rights could work to find ways to restrict access within the framework that has been approved in the referendum,” Ford said.
Nevada and its health care system will be affected by other states’ abortion bans, Ford said. When Texas passed its six-week abortion ban, providers in Nevada reported people were traveling from that state so they could receive legal, professional and safe medical care.
“What we will not do is punish people for coming to Nevada to seek medical care,” Ford said. “We will not work against people in the midst of one of the most vulnerable times in their lives.”
In 2019, with the country’s first majority-women legislature, Nevada also passed the Trust Nevada Women Act. It removed a requirement that patients be told about the “emotional implications” of getting an abortion, removed a requirement that doctors find out the marital status and age of patients before performing abortions, and got rid of criminal penalties for anyone who “supplies or administers” abortion medication without the advice of a doctor.
U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said overturning Roe would have “dire consequences for women’s health and reproductive freedoms across our country.”
“These unprecedented, rigid, and harmful attacks on women’s rights cannot go unanswered,” Rosen said in a statement, vowing to fight to ensure the right to choose is protected by codifying Roe into law.
Overturning Roe puts greater pressure on the upcoming midterm election. If U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s and Nevada’s three Democratic congresspeople’s seats are as vulnerable as political analysts say, majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate could flip from Democratic to Republican, and attempts to codify Roe into federal law will become even less likely.
“The right to reproductive health care is fundamental,” said Cortez Masto on Twitter. “If this draft becomes their final ruling, the Supreme Court will overturn almost 50 years of precedent and strike down Roe — a dangerous attack on women across the country.”
Former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who is seeking the Republican nomination to face Cortez Masto, called the news regarding the leaked document a “historic victory for the sanctity of life and the principles of democratic self-determination.” He agreed with Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote in the draft opinion that the Supreme Court has never had the expertise nor the authority to legislate on abortion.
“The people of Nevada have already voted to make abortion rights legal in our state, and so no matter the Court’s ultimate decision on Roe, it is currently settled law in our state,” Laxalt said in a statement.
He also called the leaking of the draft decision a “sinister act,” saying it is the culmination of the “Left’s multiyear effort to intimidate and undermine the highest court in the land.”
The leaker, he said, must be punished “to the fullest possible extent.”
U.S. Army veteran and GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown posted on Twitter
that he was “proudly pro-life” and echoed similar comments as Laxalt, saying the purpose of the leaking was to intimidate.
“There is no American foundation the left won’t target for politicization,” Brown said.
Experts are split regarding what the leaker’s view on the abortion issue is, and thus far the leaker remains anonymous.
Nevada Republican congressional candidates Sam Peters and Annie Black have pledged to limit abortion access. Black wants to cut Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics from government funding and instead “support centers that provide help to expectant mothers” and Peters plans to reintroduce and sponsor legislation like the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
What Cortez Masto described as an attack on women across the country would be amplified at home, as the nearly dozen GOP candidates for Nevada governor are campaigning on anti-abortion stances.
Reno attorney and former boxer Joey Gilbert, who over the weekend got an endorsement from the Nevada Republican Party, said on his campaign website, “all life is a gift from God. I will fight to defend life and protect the unborn. I will oppose all pro-abortion legislation.”
Asked if Gilbert would support overturning Nevada’s statute granting abortion rights, Gilbert’s spokesperson Paul White said Tuesday that Gilbert’s bottom line is that abortion rights are ingrained in the Nevada constitution, and people have made it a right.
“He would go with the will of the people as far as what the specific laws on abortion should be,” White said. ”This is something the people should vote on.”
Nobody would argue that 9,000 abortions a year is a good thing, White said, but on the other hand nobody would argue that the statistics regarding the lives of unwanted children are good either. White added that Gilbert would encourage teaching children to have “responsible sexual behavior and value the sanctity of human life.”
“The solution I would pursue as governor would be to work with all of Nevada’s community groups, churches, schools, and parents to teach our children the importance of sexual responsibility and the sanctity of human life,” Gilbert said in a written statement to the Sun. “This would lead to fewer and fewer women having to decide between two terrible choices: having an abortion and having an unwanted child.”
Former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, another Republican candidate for governor, applauded the news contained in the leaked opinion.
“I am the only proven conservative in this race and the only one who has consistently supported and voted to confirm conservative, pro-life judges,” Heller said in a statement Tuesday morning.
“We cannot trust liberals masquerading as pro-life advocates.This issue is too important.I am committed to supporting pro-life judges and continuing to fight for the sanctity of life and unborn children in Nevada.”
North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee said that if he was elected governor, he would be “the most pro-life governor the state has ever had.” He added though, that there are three exceptions: rape, incest and if the life of the mother is at stake. Lee added that he would like to know where the rest of the Republican candidates in the field are on the issue and if they supported any exceptions.
The campaign of Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the Republican frontrunner in the governor’s race who has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, issued a statement: “I’m Catholic and pro-life. What Nevada voters need to keep in mind is, regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court does or doesn’t do, abortion policy is addressed in our state constitution. The governor and legislature cannot make changes to it. The voters put it in our constitution and only they can change it.”
If the Supreme Court ultimately overturns Roe, when a decision is announced this month or next, 26 states are expected to move quickly to ban abortion. That would leave more than 36 million women of reproductive age across the country without abortion access, according to Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada.
It is no secret, however, that just because abortions have been banned, doesn’t mean they won’t occur. Rather, it bans access to safe abortions. The World Health Organization said that around 45% of all abortions are unsafe, 97% of which take place in developing countries.
“Unsafe abortion is a leading — but preventable — cause of maternal deaths and morbidities,” the World Health Organization says on its website. “Lack of access to safe, timely, affordable and respectful abortion care is a critical public health and human rights issue.”
This story was updated to clarify that Nevada voters affirmed a woman’s right to an abortion by statute.
