A Nevada judge ruled last week that the state can enforce a 40-year-old law requiring minors who want an abortion to first notify their parents. Though the law has been on the books since 1985, it has been blocked by federal injunctions since that time.
The parental notification law was passed in 1985 but it never went into effect because an appeals court ruled it unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. After Roe was overturned in 2022, a group of district attorneys in the state sued to reinstate the law.
U.S. District Court Judge Anne Traum ruled in favor of those district attorneys and said the law can take effect on April 30, though she left open the possibility for abortion advocates to request an appeal and challenge the law’s constitutionality.
“Defendants do not need to show that the decision in Dobbs has made the injunction more onerous, unworkable, or detrimental to the public interest,” Traum wrote. “Defendants must only show that continued enforcement would be inequitable because a change in law has eliminated the basis for the [injunction].”
“We thought it was really important that this law protecting minors, who are too immature to make their own decision regarding abortion, would obtain parental involvement in that decision,” Bopp said. “That protects minors, and it protects the rights of parents to raise their children, so there are very important interests at stake.”
Nevada Right to Life called the ruling a “historic victory.”
In November, Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment that would enshrine abortion as a constitutional “right.” That amendment must pass another vote in 2026 before it can take effect.
