A coalition running a campaign to enshrine a ‘right’ to abortion in the Nevada state constitution says it has gathered more than double the number of signatures it needs to secure a ballot measure on the proposal.
Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition connected to Planned Parenthood’s political advocacy arm, Reproductive Freedom for All Nevada (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), presented more than 200,000 petition signatures in support of its measure to state officials Monday, exceeding the 103,000 needed to advance the measure. Next, the Nevada Secretary of State’s office will have to validate the signatures before the measure earns a spot on November’s ballot.
The measure would secure “a fundamental, individual right to abortion” with a stipulation that the state can regulate a “provision of abortion after fetal viability … except where necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant individual.”
READ: Woman blames pro-life laws for abortion injury that put her fertility at risk
Nevada currently has extremely permissive abortion laws, allowing the killing of preborn children up to 24 weeks, which is past the stage at which the child could survive outside the womb. Yet the abortion industry hopes that a constitutional amendment will cement abortion even further. “The number of signatures gathered in just over three months shows how deeply Nevadans believe in abortion rights and its importance to this moment in our nation’s history,” Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom President Lindsey Harmon said Monday.
Melissa Clement, Nevada Right to Life director, told the Associated Press her organization will do all it can to fight the measure. “As a woman, nothing makes me angrier than Democrats taking one of the most difficult and traumatic decisions a woman can make and using it for political fodder,” Clement said. “Scaring women. It’s despicable.”
Per state law, if the measure makes it on the ballot and is approved by a majority of voters this November, it still needs to appear on the 2026 ballot and be approved once again for the constitutional amendment to take effect.
