LAS VEGAS (KTNV — You've already seen the TV ads in the U.S. Senate race over the issue of abortion, with Democratic incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen attacking Republican rival Sam Brown for holding anti-abortion views.
And you've surely seen Brown's responses, saying he believes abortion is a state's rights issue and promising to oppose a federal ban on the procedure if he's elected in November.
Get ready to see more, however, because this issue isn't going away — at least until Nov. 5.
Rosen held a roundtable discussion on Thursday with leaders from various abortion-rights groups and longtime local OB/GYN Dr. Florence Jameson. They talked about the legal and political landscape in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 2021.
Channel 13 spoke with Jessica Mackler, president of the pro-choice fundraising group EMILY's List, after the event, to discuss the import of the issue for the 2024 election.
"Voters have shown, in every election since the [Roe v. Wade overturning] decision, that when they are faced with a choice about a future that protects reproductive freedom and restores these rights, or politicians who want to take them away and further control our decisions, that they are with us on this issue," Mackler said.
Indeed, in the days since Roe was overturned, abortion-related measures in both red and blue states have tilted toward the pro-choice side. That includes voters' 2023 rejection of a measure in Ohio that would have made it harder to pass a constitutional amendment to confer abortion rights, and the 2022 rejection of an amendment in Kentucky that would have specified that the state constitution doesn't protect abortion rights.
Here in Nevada, supporters of an abortion-rights constitutional amendment gathered more than 200,000 signatures — twice as many as were needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
In Nevada, abortion rights are protected by state law. In 1990, the law was put up for a referendum, and was upheld 63 percent to 37 percent. As a result, it cannot be changed in the future without a second vote of the people.
But abortion rights advocates say if Congress passes a law banning or restricting abortion nationwide, it could override the state's statute. That's one reason behind the constitutional amendment. Another reason: If the constitution is amended to include abortion rights, a future initiative cannot change the language without another two general-election votes.
Some have suggested that — because abortion is already protected — the constitutional amendment is unnecessary and instead simply a vehicle to boost Democratic turnout.
Mackler rejects such views, however.
"We didn't choose to overturn Roe," she said. "This is not the state of America that we wanted. But it is where we are living and what millions of people across this country are experiencing right now."
But Melissa Clement, president of Nevada Right to Life, says the measure is all about the ballot.
"This is merely turnout," she says. "And even the Democratic leadership caucus, they put it in their memo, this is how we win, is we turn out voters by scaring them, especially in a state like Nevada."
Indeed, polls show Democrats winning on abortion while they suffer on other issues, including immigration, crime, the economy and inflation.
Clement says she's concerned about minors who are being trafficked being brought to Nevada by their abusers to get abortions without parental consent. And, she says, she objects to the general Democratic consensus in removing restrictions on abortion, regardless of the state of pregnancy.
"But once people find out, whether it's young girls without parental notification, or whether it's at nine months, the Democrat Party does not see any limitation on abortion that they are willing to consider, and that's so far out of the mainstream," she said.
Although Clement says she appreciates the fact that individual states can decide the abortion issue for their citizens, Mackler said that creates a patchwork of laws that mean women in some states have fewer rights than those in others, which was not the case before Roe was overturned.
"The state of reproductive freedom in this country is a state of emergency,"Mackler said. "People should not, based on their ZIP code, be denied lifesaving care. They shouldn't be told that the government is going to control when and if and how they start a family. And that is something that voters understand."
