Judge Rejects Attempt To Codify Abortion in Nevada Constitution

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CARSON CITY, NV – A Nevada district court judge recently rejected a 2024 ballot initiative that sought to enshrine abortion in the state’s constitution by judging the petition as “misleading” and in violation of the “single subject rule” for constitutional amendments.

The initiative proposed to add a new section to Nevada’s Constitution that would bar the state regulating abortion before “fetal viability.” If passed by voters, the petition would have prohibited the state from interfering in a person’s decisions regarding “all matters relating to pregnancy.”

The petition states, “Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” and lists “prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, vasectomy, tubal ligation, abortion, abortion care, management of a miscarriage and infertility care” as areas where an individual has the right to make decisions “without limitation.”

District Court Judge James T. Russell agreed with CPC’s argument and blocked Nevada from placing the proposed amendment on next year’s ballot.

Judge Russell wrote, “This Court agrees with Plaintiffs that the Petition embraces a multitude of subjects that amount to logrolling. Subsection 1 purportedly creates a ‘fundamental right to reproductive. freedom,’ but there is no limiting language in that section to circumscribe that right such that the section embraces a single and articulable subject. For instance, it is unclear how a vasectomy relates to infertility care or postpartum care. Likewise, it is unclear how postpartum care is related to abortions or birth control. Thus, it is improper to characterize these broad categories as a ‘single subject’ because there is no explanation as to how these provisions are functionally related.”