Nevadans will vote on a constitutional amendment, Question 6, in November. If it passes in 2024 and 2026, abortion will be an individual fundamental right without limit. No doctors. No safety regulations. All nine months. No parental involvement for underage girls seeking an abortion.

Risky for women. Dangerous for girls. Deadly for the almost-born. Bad for Nevada.

Today, Nevada’s federal court was asked to lift its order barring enforcement of Nevada’s requirement that parents of minors seeking abortion be notified before any abortion. The request was made in a motion by Jason D. Woodbury, Carson City District Attorney, and Stephen B. Rye, Lyon County District Attorney. The case is Glick v. Ford. 

Nevada's parental-notice law (NRS442.255) requires that a custodial parent or guardian be notified before a physician performs an abortion on an unmarried or unemancipated minor unless the physician believes “an abortion is immediately necessary to preserve the patient’s life or health.” But the minor may seek a judicial bypass, in which case notice would not be required if she proves (a) “she is mature enough to make an intelligent and informed decision; (b) she is “financially independent or emancipated,” or (c) the notice “would be detrimental to her best interests.” 

The Glick order should be lifted because it was based on a federal abortion right that no longer exists. In 1985, abortion providers Dr. Glick and Planned Parenthood of Washoe County sued to halt enforcement of the parental-notice law based on the abortion right announced in Roe v. Wade. But in the 2022 Dobbs decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe. So the order halting enforcement has lost its basis and should be lifted. 

Moreover, even under Roe, such parental-notification laws were permitted. In fact in 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court expressly rejected (in Lambert v. Wicklund (1997)) the opinion upholding Glick on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

James Bopp, Jr., of The Bopp Law Firm, PC, and counsel for district attorneys Woodbury and Rye, says: “Laws requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortion have long been upheld even under Roe v. Wade. With Roe overruled, there is no reason why Nevada’s parental-notification law should not be enforced. And notifying parents is vital to protecting both parents and their pregnant daughters.” 

Melissa Clement, Executive Director of Nevada Right to Life, says “an overwhelming majority of Nevadans support commonsense, time-tested parental involvement laws. Parents are the rightful decision-makers for their children’s medical decisions. It is time the courts restore parental rights.”

The 82nd Legislature of the state of Nevada came to an end at midnight on June 5, 2023. Although the assembly consisted of a super-majority of pro-death zealots and the senate was one shy of a super-majority of pro-death zealots, we were able to fight back most of the bad bills. Here is a breakdown on the bills we fought.

Supreme Court To Hear Case Tomorrow That Could Overturn Roe

On December 1, 2021, the United States Supreme Court will hear the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization concerning Mississippi’s 2018 “Gestational Age Act” which protects babies after 15-weeks gestation. The court is considering the question as to whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.

Viability, the time when the child can “survive on its own” apart from the mother, is considered to be about 21-22 weeks. Dobbs v Jackson could be a direct challenge to Roe v Wade and the subsequent Casey decision which dictate that “a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.”

The state of Mississippi and others note that the state has interests that come into play prior to viability and that the Roe and Casey decisions prevent them from even being considered.

For instance, abortions at 15 weeks are more dangerous and states need the ability to protect women considering these abortions. Roe and Casey are based on medical research that is 50 years old. There are now studies showing that early in the “second trimester” (before 15 weeks) the unborn can feel pain and is conscious. That means that Casey and Roe protect the killing of conscious/sentient, pain sensing human beings. That adds an extra level of barbarism and inhumanity to the outrage of the killing of innocent human beings.

US Abortion Law Is Radical and Horrific

Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon and Notre Dame’s O. Carter Snead say that the Mississippi law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks is a modest proposal compared to abortion laws around the world. The militant opposition to a ban after fifteen weeks shows how truly radical and outrageous both the abortion movement and abortion law is in the United States. Horrifyingly, the United States is just one of seven nations that allow abortion beyond 20 weeks including China and North Korea.

Our colleagues at National Right to Life note that “At 15-weeks gestation, a little boy or girl’s heart has been beating for over two months. Brain waves have been detectable for 7 weeks. At eight weeks of gestation, brain waves can be detected. At nine weeks, the baby is kicking and swimming. At week ten, every organ is in place and the baby can begin to hear. At weeks eleven and twelve, teeth begin to form, fingernails develop. The baby can turn her head and frown. The baby can hiccup. At week 13, the baby can grasp objects placed in her hand; all organ systems are functioning. The baby also has skeletal structure, nerves, and circulation.”

Please join us in praying that the Supreme Court finally recognizes the humanity of the unborn. The case is not expected to be settled until the spring. Until then, Nevada Right to Life will provide information and perspective from several different groups and their briefings as to why the Mississippi law should be upheld and why Roe and Casey must be overturned.

2020 General Ballots Are Here!

Every registered voter in Nevada should have received their ballot for the General Election in the mail, even if not requested. PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN for your ballot and secure it. We recommend that you fill out your ballot with your choices marked, put it in a safe place, and then vote IN PERSON during early voting (when you go, surrender your ballot after writing void on it).

Click here to get suggested candidates based on your address.

2020 Endorsements for Nevada's General Election

President: Donald J Trump

CD1: Kamau Bakari

CD2: Marc Amodei

CD3: Dan "Big Dan" Rodimer

CD4: Jim Marchant

Justice of the Supreme Court: Douglas Herndon

Senate District 4 – Esper Hickman

Senate District 5 – Carrie Buck

Senate District 6 – April Becker

Senate District 11 – Joshua Dowden

Senate District 15 – Heidi Gansert

Senate District 18 – Scott T Hammond

Senate District 19 – Pete Goicoechea

Assembly District 2 – Heidi Kasama

Assembly District 4 – Richard McArthur

Assembly District 6 – Katie Duncan

Assembly District 7 – Anthony Palmer

Assembly District 9 – Barbara Altman

Assembly District 10 – Chris Hisgen

Assembly District 11 – Eric Krattiger

Assembly District 12 – Jeremy Graves

Assembly District 13 – Tom Roberts

Assembly District 15 – Stan Vaughn

Assembly District 16 – Reyna “Alex” Sajdak

Assembly District 17 – Jack Polcyn

Assembly District 18 – Heather Ann Florian

Assembly District 19 – Ann “Annie” Black

Assembly District 21 – Cherlynn Arrington

Assembly District 22 – Melissa Hardy

Assembly District 23 – Glenn Leavitt

Assembly District 25 – Jill Tolles

Assembly District 26 – Lisa Krasner

Assembly District 27 – Barb Hawn

Assembly District 29 – Steven Delisle

Assembly District 30 – Charlene Young

Assembly District 31 – Jill Dickman

Assembly District 32 – Alexis Hansen

Assembly District 33 – John C. Ellison

Assembly District 34 – Jay Thomas Carlson

Assembly District 35 – Jay Calhoun

Assembly District 36 – Gregory Hafen II

Assembly District 37 – Andy Matthews

Assembly District 38 – Robin Titus

Assembly District 39 – Jim Wheeler

Assembly District 40 – Phillip PK O’Neill

Assembly District 41 – Erika Smith

Endorsement Process

Nevada Right to Life lobbies on a local, state, and federal level. In support of this goal, we provide endorsements and candidate information to enable pro-life voters to vote for the best advocates who can then pass laws and enact policy that protects life from conception to natural death.

Candidates receive endorsements based on the following criteria:

1. Past votes on life.
2. Satisfactory completion of a candidate survey on life issues and policy.
3. Past volunteerism or direct action on behalf of life.
4. Viability.

Non-life issues are not considered in the endorsement process. We are a single issue group. Life is the first issue. If a candidate does not value life, it is doubtful they will value much else.

Nevada Right to Life commends President Trump’s nomination of an impressively well-qualified judge to the Supreme Court. Judge Barrett has demonstrated a commitment to defending the text and history of the Constitution and the principles of judicial restraint.

Amy Coney Barrett stands in stark contrast with the judicial-legislative activists who would be nominated by Joe Biden. Joe Biden has promised to impose a litmus test of his nominees and their support of Roe V. Wade.

Judge Barrett earned her J.D. summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School, where she was first in her class and received the Hoynes Prize, the law school’s highest honor. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Beginning in 2002, Barrett taught law at Notre Dame, and was named “Distinguished Professor of the Year” three times. In 2017, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She is married to Jesse Barrett, an Assistant United States Attorney and the couple has seven children.

47 Too Many – Melissa Clement, Nevada Right to Life Today marks the 47th anniversary of the tragic and devastating Roe v Wadedecision. The human carnage – for the unborn and their mothers – wrought that day was likely unimaginable to the seven men who sat in judgement on future generations. These men legalized abortion, for any reason, for all nine months of pregnancy. They turned mother against child, father against mother. Marketing Death and Grief to Women For years, slick marketing has covered the blood. Reproductive freedom and choice sells much better than the loneliness and the emotional toll from choosing to kill a life to live your own. Legal, safe, and rare was a great sales pitch in the days before social media. But as the unborn lives lost surpass 61 million in our country alone, it becomes increasingly hard to believe. A photographic tour through infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s house of horrors, where women bled to death and babies born alive were drowned in toilets, further pricks the conscience. Truth Beats Marketing For most of the past 47 years, millions of women struggled in silence with the physical and emotional consequences of their choice to abort their baby. In the last decade though, groups like Silent No More have given women the tools to heal from their choice, grieve their loss, and share with younger women the truth of abortion. 3D ultrasound shows the humanity of the unborn. The “blobs of tissue” smile and wave back at their mothers in doctors’ offices and pregnancy resource centers across the nation. In doing so, become their own greatest advocates. Our children are pro-life because they have seen pictures of themselves in utero. They know the awful truth “there but for the grace of God, go I.” The Mask Has Slipped The slick marketing has slipped in the last year exposing the horrific truth that was always there. The pro-abortion governors in New York and Virginia proudly advocated abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy and, ghoulishly, after birth. In Nevada, pro-abortion legislators reduced already weak requirements for informed consent, removed screening for coercion prior to an abortion, and most stunningly, eliminated a doctor’s requirement to verify a young girl’s age prior to an abortion. Meanwhile, school board members across the state, welcomed the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, into our classrooms. Why? To teach our children a transactional, value-free, and consequenceless perspective to sex. Call to action 2019 was a tough year and 2020, as the election nears, will be more challenging. But we will win. For the unborn, for the women, for the children, we will fight on, knowing the truth will set us free.

It's all about the judges

Being proudly pro-life, we have all had our hearts broken countless times. Politician after politician pledges to protect the unborn. We work hard, we vote, and we elect them only to see those promises postponed until after the NEXT election. In 2016, a lot of us voted for President Trump solely on the promise of pro-life judges, half expecting the usual bait and switch. I am happy to say we ARE NOT waiting until after the next election. Promises made. Promises kept.  And, it will continue!

Why do we care about judges?

47 years ago, the Supreme Court created a right to abortion from whole cloth. With Roe v. Wade (and the accompanying Doe v Bolton), abortion was legalized and legitimized for all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason. Sadly, seven judges changed the course of history and, in the process, sentenced more than 60 million unborn Americans - so far - to death.

We have made progress in protecting the unborn in many states, but every positive law that protects the unborn and their mothers ends up in front of judges.

Elections matter

We need good, brave pro-life legislators AND we need strict constructionist judges that will not overturn pro-life legislation.

President Donald J. Trump has kept his pro-life promise of nominating solid judges. So far, 2 Supreme Court justices, 50 to the Courts of Appeals, and 117 to the District/Specialty Courts.

Congratulations Lawrence VanDyke

President Trump nominated former Nevada Solicitor General, Lawrence VanDyke for the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Although backed by an impressive set of credentials – including a Harvard Law degree, editor of Harvard Law Review, and experience as solicitor general of two states within the 9^th Circuit – Mr. VanDyke faced a daunting backlash from every progressive, anti-life group and leftist senator.

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Lawrence VanDyke to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, fundamentally changing the makeup of the most liberal, most overturned, and most anti-life Appeals Court in the land. In fact, Nevada’s parental notification for minor girls seeking an abortion statute remains unenforced in our state due to the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

VanDyke is a strict constructionist and will be an ally for life – born and unborn. He will provide a much-needed counterbalance to the extreme leftward, anti-life, anti-liberty stance of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

We congratulate Mr. VanDyke and look forward to his long service on the Court. Thank you President Trump for your promises kept.

Abortion data released two weeks ago by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is more good news. The numbers of abortions, the rate of women having abortions and the ratio between abortions and live births are continuing their steady and dramatic decline. This confirms the drop reported recently by pro-abortion policy group, Guttmacher Institute.

Dramatic?

Yes, dramatic.  The number of abortions are down 45 percent to 862,000 in 2017 (according to Guttmacher) from 1.6 million in 1990, all while our population increased 25 percent. The abortion rate (the number of women having abortions per 1000 women 15-44) is down almost 50 percent to 13.5 (CDC says 11.6), and the abortion ratio-the ratio of abortions to live births is down 50 percent from 36.4 in 1980 to 18.4.  This means that fewer and fewer pregnant women are turning to abortion.  All of this has happened for many reasons.

Abortion Understood More Now

The decline of abortion is to be expected given the growing understanding of the unborn.  Not only has technology given us a view into the womb that destroys the lies of the abortion industry that the baby is a blob of tissue, a clump of cells or whatever dehumanizing language they use to justify what they do to the unborn, but pro-lifers, with the help of our tremendous apologists, are also making the case that the unborn is not merely a “what” or “some thing,” but a who and someone.  He or she is one of us and only differ in terms of our Size, Level of development, Environment-where we are located, and our Degree of dependency, also known as the SLED test.  These criteria are insufficient to make one more of a human being with a right to life and one without.  We are making it harder for our opponents are make their case that there is such a thing as a human non person or human being without human rights who can be disposed of for the reasons for which almost all abortions are performed.

Activism and Legislation

None of the advances could be accomplished without pro-life activism and legislative efforts.  Abortion advocates are in panic over the number of “anti-choice” bills in legislatures in many states.  The passage of the Hyde amendment which prohibits federal funding of abortion has had the huge impact that abortion advocates said it would.  So has the ban and the prolonged discussion on gruesome partial birth abortions.  These and other issues are causing the public to think about abortion and the unborn.

Pro-life candidates are being elected to office.  Two justices have been added to the United States Supreme Court and President Trump and Senator McConnell are rapidly filling lower federal courts.

The Voice of Women

The stories of the impact of abortion on women is another contributor.  Abortion hasn’t turned out to be the personal and public good it was promised to be.  Many times it’s another tool used to control women.  One study found 64 percent of women felt some coercion.  60 percent said “part of me died” after the abortion.  How can that possibly be empowering?  This is not a recent discovery.  Many years ago, Zogby polling asked "If a relative or close friend told you she was pregnant and wanted to get an abortion which of the following statements best expresses your reaction?" More than two-thirds (67.4%) said either "tell her abortion is wrong" (32.7%) or advise against her decision (34.7%).  Only 19.1% would advise her to go ahead “if she thinks it is right.”

Pro-life pregnancy care centers have also helped by reaching out to women in crisis and providing accurate information about the unborn, post abortion impact and alternatives to abortion.

All of these things are contributing to the dramatic decrease in abortions on our way to ending it.  Thanks for helping Nevada Right to Life do our part to bring this about.

Serious abortion thinkers will acknowledge that the unborn is human, but will they will also argue that being human is not enough for human beings like the unborn to possess human rights like the right to life. Such humans may be humans but they are not persons and because they are not “persons,” disposing of them is not morally objectionable. Please read Paul Stark’s short article which explains and refutes this argument, the strongest in the abortion arsenal. It will increase your pro-life advocacy skills.

If you are interested in learning more about the right to life, learn more about Nevada Right to Life.