Texas’ restrictive abortion law — or one like it — won’t affect Nevadans
The Supreme Court’s decision not to block a new restrictive abortion law in Texas won’t have any effect on women’s reproductive rights in Nevada.
The Texas law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which is typically after around six weeks of pregnancy and before most women know they are pregnant.
A divided U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 early Thursday morning to deny an emergency appeal by abortion providers that sought to block the law from going into effect, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the minority.
The law was written as a work around to avoid federal court review by allowing private citizens to sue anyone involved in an abortion other than the patient.
The high court’s decision not to block the Texas law — or any future decision it may make on the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision — won’t have any effect on Nevadans, however.
In 1990, Nevadans voted to approve Question 7 — by a 63.5 percent to 36.5 percent margin — and codified a statute that allows abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. The vote essentially wrote the Roe decision into state law.
That law can only be changed if it is placed on the ballot, either by the state Legislature or by gathering signatures equal to 10 percent of the number of people who voted in the most recent statewide election.
For the 2022 ballot, such a petition would require at least 135,561 signatures to qualify. Past efforts to change the state law have come short of ever qualifying for the ballot, most recently in 2012.
“I want to assure Nevadans that this law will have no effect on their rights,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said of the Texas law in a statement Wednesday.
Ford said that Texas “has directly attacked the constitutional reproductive rights of its residents, who must be allowed to access safe and legal abortions.”
Ford hinted that Nevada could get involved in potential litigation regarding that law, saying that that his office is working with counterparts across the country to determine “next best steps.”
“Our office will not sit on the sidelines as these shameful and radical attacks on necessary health care continue,” Ford said.
Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.