Attorneys for Planned Parenthood asked a Clark County judge to block a nearly 40-year-old Nevada law requiring minors seeking an abortion to first notify their parents or guardians or get a judge’s permission, after a federal judge lifted a decades-old injunction last month.

Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking the law is now pending before District Court Judge Erika Mendoza, who heard arguments Monday but said she’ll issue a written decision soon.

The 1985 law, SB510, had never been enforced until late July, after federal District Court Judge Anne Traum lifted a longstanding administrative block on the law’s implementation after a group of rural district attorneys challenged the underlying legal basis for the block after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections in 2023. 

An attorney for the state argued Monday that Planned Parenthood should have named the two district attorneys and that an injunction would not be effective, as it would only prevent the attorney general — who has not indicated plans on enforcing the law —  from taking over prosecutions of physicians violating the law, while district attorneys could still continue to enforce it.

“What this court would be doing by issuing a preliminary injunction, would be to usurp the federal court's decision that these laws are in effect,” said Jessica Whelan, an attorney for the state. Whelan also said that there have been two legislative sessions held since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and Nevada lawmakers have not attempted to repeal the law.

A representative for the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Attorneys for Planned Parenthood said the law was not specific enough in how a physician should make a “personal notification” to parents and how the physician can verify that a minor received a court order. 

“Legislatures don't get to enact unconstitutional laws, so that one day, they will rise from the dead,” said Bradley Schrager, an attorney representing Planned Parenthood.

The state court lawsuit was filed just days before the implementation went into effect, with Planned Parenthood attorneys anticipating the judge lifting the block. That lawsuit, filed July 21, stated that the law made no exemptions if minors were victims of physical or sexual abuse by their parents or guardians, or if the minors were in foster care. 

Attorneys for the state argued that the state case was similar to the federal case, but Planned Parenthood attorneys disagreed.

In their complaint, Planned Parenthood argued that the 1985 law had been “impliedly repealed” with the passage of a 2019 law that repealed informed consent laws for abortions. The complaint also argued that the 2022 equal rights amendment to the Nevada Constitution protected abortion rights by ensuring equal rights regardless of sex and gender.

Children who don’t involve their parents in abortion decision-making do so out of fear of abuse, financial challenges or fear that they would be forced to carry a pregnancy to term, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte President and CEO Stacy Cross said in an interview. Though the law makes some exceptions, Cross said obtaining a court order is a high bar to clear.

“The vast majority of adolescents that come in for a procedure, they bring a parent or they bring a trusted adult,” Cross said.