Bipartisan Support In State Senate For Transgender Inmates And Abortion

The saying “politics makes strange bedfellows” is certainly appropriate to describe the latest bipartisan votes in the State Senate. After Senate Bill 131 passed with bipartisan support, the NV GOP tweeted that they were “horrified.”

We are horrified that @HeidiGansert and @CarrieBuck4NV voted to protect human traffickers and sexual predators by voting yes on SB131.

Thank you to the Republican Senators who stood up for our most vulnerable victims.

Let them know they voted wrong ➡️https://t.co/3R1vnULTxj pic.twitter.com/FkS3PeUtHV

— Nevada GOP (@NVGOP) April 19, 2023

Senate Bill 131, as The Globe reported, codifies former Governor Sisolak’s Executive Order who had announced at the time that “reproductive health care is a basic human right — We are committed to ensuring safe access to abortions for women seeking refuge from the restrictive laws in their state.” The bill also specifically eliminates the ability of any healthcare licensing board to investigate or disqualify unsafe abortionists from practicing in Nevada.

The bill drew unanimous Democratic support with Senators Heidi Seevers Gansert and Carrie Buck joining the majority.

Due to the fact that parental notification is not required for a child to receive an abortion and that Nevada is the number one state for human and sex trafficking, opponents refer to this bill as the “human trafficking and sex predator bill.”

Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro immediately filed SB131 as a necessary response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade. At the time, she incorrectly claimed that abortion was a constitutional right. However, she and her democratic colleagues are seeking to add abortion rights through a ballot amendment to the Nevada Constitution.

Governor Lombardo has signaled his support of the bill during an interview with KNPR.

Senate Bill 153, per the bills language, requires: “the Director of the Department of Corrections to adopt regulations prescribing certain standards concerning offenders who are transgender, gender non–conforming, gender non–binary and intersex; requiring a program of facility
training for correctional staff to include training in cultural competency for interacting with offenders who are transgender, gender non–conforming, gender non–binary and intersex.” 

In a nutshell, inmates who are biological men will be placed in a prison intended for biological women.

The bill was unanimously passed by Senate Democrats with Republican Senators Lisa Krasner, Heidi Seevers Gansert and Cary Buck joining the majority.

Attorney and National GOP Committeewoman for Nevada, Sigal Chattah, claimed that the bill would endanger women’s lives, soliciting a response from Attorney Harmeet Dillion referring to the bill as “barbaric and unconstitutional.”

With friends like these, who needs enemies. This is a gigantic self-own with certain tragic consequences for women.

Being sentenced to prison for a crime you committed should not come along with the risk of rape, assault, and privacy violations. This is barbaric and… https://t.co/MLefLVeyTX

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) April 18, 2023

One week ago, James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group released two videos of female inmates describing the horrors they have witnessed since Washington state passed similar legislation. One female inmate told a reporter, “We have men rapists, men murderers, child rapists, men who have killed women who get put in our rooms. Some of these men are not confused. They’re just manipulating the system.”

Female inmate: “So, we have men rapists, men murderers, child rapists, men who have killed women and are in prison for raping and killing women who get put in our rooms.”

pic.twitter.com/6CFIrZEcfb

— O’Keefe Media Group (@OKeefeMedia) April 14, 2023

Governor Lombardo has not commented on whether or not he will veto this legislation.