Nevada Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, along with 39 other Democrats, sponsored the joint resolution. SJR 7 would make it a right for an individual to make decisions about and obtain an abortion, birth control, vasectomy, tubal ligation, and care for a miscarriage. It would also prohibit the state from prosecuting a health care worker for providing an abortion or a person for aiding another in accessing reproductive health care.
Nevada law protects access to an abortion for up to 24 weeks, or longer to save the life of the pregnant person. Enshrining the protections in the state constitution would make the rights more difficult to repeal. Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada Executive Director Lindsey Harmon said this is crucial following the overturn ofRoe v. Wade.
“We had a lot of conversations about the Dobbs decisions, how that was somehow returning the abortion decision or discussion back to the states. I think most of us who work in the movement know that that’s not true, that this has been a systemic undoing of abortion law in the U.S. for a very long time. If it were about states, then we should absolutely all get behind turning something like this over to a vote of the people,” Harmon said.
Since the legislation aims to amend the state constitution, it would need to pass the 2023 and 2025 Nevada Legislative Sessions, then Nevada voters would ultimately decide through a ballot question in 2026.
