‘Abortion Rights’ Amendment Qualifies for November Ballot

Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom announced that the Nevada Secretary of State’s office (NVSOS) has certified the needed number of signatures for their ballot initiative to appear on the November ballot. .

The Reproductive Freedom Amendment  (see below) would constitutionally protect procedures related to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, vasectomy, tubal ligation, abortion, abortion care, management of a miscarriage and infertility care.

If voters pass the initiative in November, voters would have to pass the initiative again in 2026 to amend the constitution, per state law. Nevada is now the sixth state to put the issue of “abortion rights” before voters during this year’s election.

For background, the Reproductive Freedom Amendment was filed with the NVSOS last September by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom PAC. The PAC is spearheaded by Lindsey Harmon, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Votes NV. After a series of court battles, the Nevada’s Supreme Court allowed the petition to proceed.

At the time the petition was filed, Harmon referenced the “fallout” from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal, not constitutional, protections granted by Roe v. Wade as the reason to take the initiative to Nevada voters.

Upon the successful certification by the NVSOS, Harmon released the following statement: “The support this initiative has received from Nevadans throughout the signature collection process shows what we’ve known to be true: Nevadans believe that healthcare decisions about abortion are best left to women, their doctors, and those they love and trust — not politicians.”

The statement from Harmon is of interest in that the term “women” is entirely absent from the amendment’s language and is replaced with “individual.”

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 an 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.

According to the petition’s language, the mental health of the “individual” will be determined by an ambiguous “health care provider,” who may or may not be a physician according to Nevada statute.

Nevadans passed an initiative in 1990 that codified abortion up to six months of pregnancy with extended protections if the life–not the mental health– of the mother is threatened. The overturn of Roe v. Wade does not change Nevada law; but, according to critics, the Reproductive Freedom Amendment does in that it removes the six month limitation and expands abortion to the moment of birth when the undefined health or mental health of the mother is at risk.

Additionally, as Nevada is the number one state for human trafficking, the absence of parental consent for abortion has been an ongoing concern that is currently in litigation.

Although Nevada has a parental notification statute, the statute was enjoined soon thereafter as part of the Glick v McKay case decided by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The law was found unconstitutional and the injunction has remained in place.

A minor girl can get an abortion in Nevada without a parent knowing or consenting, regardless of age. Nevada Right to Life released this statement regarding the necessity of parental notification:

A 2015 bill that would have reinstated parental notification requirements in Nevada did not become law.