In 2022, a 6-3 ruling by a conservative Supreme Court stripped away a woman’s right to choose by overturning Roe v. Wade, allowing states across the nation to enact draconian laws that criminalized women for seeking medical care. This coming election cycle centers abortion as a key issue for voters. The Harris-Walz (D) and Trump-Vance (R) tickets have vastly different policies that address abortion, and multiple states, including Nevada, will have the opportunity to enshrine abortion protections into their constitution.

When you go to the polls this November, you have the opportunity to vote on Nevada Question 6: Right to Abortion Initiative. This measure will enshrine abortion rights in our Constitution and protect women in Nevada who need abortion care. Nevada law currently protects the right to abortion up to 24 weeks for any reason, and after 24 weeks if the life of the mother is threatened; however, this right is not explicitly written into our Constitution and could be withdrawn at any time. 

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican-led states have passed laws or revoked existing laws that protect women’s access to reproductive freedom. Take a look at our neighbors in Arizona, whose Supreme Court repealed abortion protections all the way back to 1864. To provide context to the state of medical care in 1864, we had only barely discovered that germs caused disease and did not have access to antibiotics. Arizona’s action raised the possibility of imprisonment for providing abortion services. Only after massive bipartisan feedback and several failed attempts at getting rid of the old law did the legislature finally repeal it.

Abortion bans in other states cause tangible harm to women’s health. Women have been forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term only to watch their babies suffer and die. Women have suffered serious complications due to underlying health conditions. It's only a matter of time before we will be reporting about the women who were killed under these bans. These bans also don't result in an increase in healthy infants. In fact, in Texas, there was instead a 13 percent increase in infant and newborn mortality due to abortion bans.  

Nevada has a choice to make this November. Voting yes for the Nevada Reproductive Rights Amendment would ensure that generations of women to come would have the right to abortion. If we fail to pass this amendment, we are leaving our health care decisions up to the whims of the legislators. The choice could not be clearer. 

Dr. Maria Phillis is an obstetrician/gynecologist and maternal fetal medicine subspecialist. She specializes in the care of high-risk pregnancies.

Matthew Walker is a third year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and is passionate about health equity, patient advocacy and reproductive health care. He is a native Nevadan.

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