Planned Parenthood Officers File Petition To Add Abortion To Nevada Constitution

Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Votes Lindsey Harmon and her “intersectional feminist” associate Briana Escamilla (she/her) created Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom PAC last month and has filed a petition to place a question on the 2024 ballot to add abortion to the Nevada constitution. The constitutional amendment would also guarantee a person’s right to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, a vasectomy, tubal ligation, abortion care, management of a miscarriage and infertility care.

As reported in a scoop by NBC news, Harmon references the “fallout” from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal, not constitutional, protections granted by Roe v. Wade.

“The fallout of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has shown us that we have already suffered one year too long without the guaranteed right to reproductive freedom, and we simply cannot afford to stand by and allow any further encroachment on the fundamental right of Nevadans to determine their own reproductive lives and care,” Lindsey Harmon, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada, said in a statement.

Thank you @Nicole4Nevada for leading the efforts around #SB131 and #SJR7, both of which moved forward today!

And for hanging out with our volunteers and making their day! https://t.co/4P9F1Scdgk

— Briana Escamilla (@escamillabriana) May 10, 2023

Their effort has been preceded by Nevada Democrats in the state legislature who unanimously passed SJR7 this last legislative session,

As reported by The Globe, SJR7, would guarantee “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” authorize “the state to regulate abortion care after fetal viability with certain exceptions” and prevent the state from penalizing or prosecuting an individual exercising the “right to reproductive freedom.”

SJR7 further states that reproductive rights would include, “without limitation, prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, vasectomy, tubal litigation, abortion, abortion care, management of a miscarriage and infertility care.”

The proposed language (see below) of the constitutional amendment mimics SJR7’s language:

Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including, without limitation, prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, vasectomy, tubal ligation, abortion, abortion care, management of a miscarriage and infertility care…

The State may not penalize, prosecute, or take adverse action against any individual based on the outcome of a pregnancy of the individual, or against any licensed health care provider who acts consistent with the applicable scope and practice of providing reproductive health care services to an individual who has granted their voluntary consent…

Neither may the State penalize, prosecute, or take adverse action against any individual or entity for aiding or assisting another individual in the exercise of the rights established by this initiative.”

Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom has formed a coalition of abortion rights groups which include, Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada, NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

The coalition will need to collect 103,000 signatures from registered voters by June 26 to get their proposal on the November 2024 ballot. If the question passes by a simple majority, the initiative will appear again on the 2026 ballot. According to Nevada law, a second passage is required to change the constitution.

Although abortion is legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks (and beyond in special circumstances) through a ballot initiative passed by 63 percent of the voters in 1990, abortion rights will, once again, be on the 2024 ballot in the swingy Silver State as Senator Jacky Rosen and her fellow Nevada democrats have made abortion the centerpiece of their respective campaigns with hopes of driving Democratic voters to the polls on wedge issues–as opposed to kitchen table economic issues.

While Republicans continue to do everything they can to ban abortion – I’m working hard to keep abortion care in Nevada safe, legal, and accessible.

— Jacky Rosen (@RosenforNevada) September 12, 2023

Emily Mimnaugh, Attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute told The Globe:

The proposed constitutional amendment does not maintain the status quo in Nevada. Put bluntly, the petition wants to give constitutional immunity to amateur abortionists to operate up until the moment of birth on any woman or girl, no matter how young.

The petition opens the door to abortion up to the moment of birth, even for young girls and even if performed by unlicensed abortionist. Planned Parenthood is asking Nevadans to defer to any abortionist’s subjective discretion, asking us to promise abortionists constitutionally clad immunity so long as they obtain so-called “voluntary consent” from a woman or girl, regardless of her age. 

Their petition suggests that no girl is too young to receive an abortion. 

Their petition suggests that abortion must be protected, in the name of mental health, through all nine months of a pregnancy.

Their petition refuses to name its victims—Nevada’s women and girls—assigning them instead to the neutered, sexless category of “pregnant individual.” 

Their petition strips away the dignity and identity of women. 

They discard current medical protections for the health and safety of mothers, choosing to protect abortionists at the expense of women and girls.

This radical petition promotes abortion over safety.  

Nevada has already guaranteed the right to elective abortion up to 24 weeks, as well as the right to abortion at any point if necessary to preserve the life or health of a pregnant woman.

Nevadans should reject Planned Parenthood’s attempt to force us into the fringes by dismantling medical and safety protections for pregnant woman and girls in the name of unlimited abortion.

Attempts to reach Briana Escamilla were unsuccessful. Lindsey Harmon told The Globe she would answer or provide comment, but at the time of publishing we had not received her response. We will update the story with her reply if and when received.

*Of interesting note, one has to be 18 years of age to gather signatures to sign the petition.