Published Wednesday, May 10, 2023 | 1:42 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, May 10, 2023 | 2:20 p.m.
Lawmakers in the Nevada Assembly today voted along party lines on a measure that could enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution, though the proposal is still a long way from becoming law.
The Assembly voted 28-14 — with all Republicans voting against — to pass Senate Joint Resolution 7, which also passed out of the Legislature’s upper chamber last month along party lines.
Both legislative bodies will have to pass the measure again in the 2025 session for it to be posed to voters as a ballot referendum for the 2026 general election.
Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates cheered the resolution’s approval as a vital step toward protecting women’s bodily autonomy, especially in the months following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year to overturn the landmark case that presumed the right to the procedure.
Since the court’s ruling in June, states nationwide have moved to restrict or outright ban abortions.
“Nevadans believe health care decisions should be between patients and their doctors without the interference of politicians,” Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, said in a statement. “After a radical Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we saw legislatures across the country immediately pursue extreme abortion bans and work to strip away access to reproductive health care. Senate Joint Resolution 7 will give voters the opportunity to affirmatively say reproductive freedom is a fundamental constitutional right and to prevent extreme anti-choice politicians in Nevada from imposing draconian restrictions on those rights.”
In addition to the right to an abortion, SJR7 also assumes the right to “reproductive freedom,” including birth control, prenatal and postpartum care, vasectomies, tubal ligation, infertility care and miscarriage treatment.
Lindsey Harmon, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada, said the need to pass AJR7 became even more clear since in recent months, the Supreme Court began hearing a case that could undo the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion medication mifepristone, which has been deemed safe for use since 2000.
“It is abundantly clear, now is the time to take every measure possible at the state level to protect reproductive care,” Harmon said in a statement. “Nevadans have shown time and time again that they support the right to abortion and reproductive health care and we are grateful to the legislators who lead with that in mind this legislative session.”
Opponents, however, say amending the state constitution is a costly and unnecessary move that would bypass current law allowing abortion up to 24 weeks gestation.
The National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest anti-abortion advocacy group, wrote in a letter to lawmakers in March the implications of passing SJR7 would “enshrine a right to end the lives of unborn children up until birth is irresponsible and dangerous.”
In a tweet shortly after the vote, the Nevada Assembly Republican caucus argued any rhetoric stating abortion protections in Nevada have diminished since the high court’s ruling last year is “disingenuous.”
“With a unified Caucus vote, we opposed SJR7, which will only revoke the People’s right to vote to change current abortion law as they see fit and will allow abortion up until birth,” the tweet said.
