A 40-year-old Nevada law requiring minors having an abortion first notify their parents or guardians is now in effect for the first time, after a federal district court judge lifted an administrative block Tuesday afternoon. 

The one-page order from District Court Judge Anne Traum came after a federal appellate judge earlier this week opted not to temporarily pause implementation of the never-enforced 1985 law while the federal appeal proceeds.

In anticipation of the law going into effect, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte filed a new lawsuit in state court Monday seeking to halt its implementation. 

The California-based abortion rights group and health care provider, and a physician using the pseudonym Dr. Doe, filed a complaint for injunctive relief in Clark County’s District Court on Monday. They argue the 1985 law, SB510, relies on a “hazy, inadequate” process for minors to secure an exception to the law that violates guarantees of procedural due process and lacks guidance or rules to govern it.

“It is fundamentally unclear how any patient seeking a judicial bypass order may practically do so across the state of Nevada at this time,” attorneys wrote in the filing.

Shortly after SB510’s passage in 1985, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued an injunction, saying the law violated the right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed, making that injunction permanent even while the law stayed on the books. 

Following the overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision, which had protected the constitutional right to an abortion for about 50 years, district attorneys from Lyon County and Carson City in 2024 argued the 1985 law is now enforceable. They won an initial legal battle in April, but Traum agreed to continue the stay pending an appeal. That appeal is still pending and scheduled for oral arguments in October, but in a July 18 order, the 9th Circuit wrote that Planned Parenthood “failed to establish serious questions going to the merits on its argument” that would have justified the court issuing a temporary stay.

James Bopp Jr., a conservative lawyer representing the district attorneys from Carson City, Storey and Douglas counties, among others, celebrated the news in a phone interview Tuesday evening, saying parents are now guaranteed to be involved in the abortion process.

“Planned Parenthood better be complying, starting an hour ago, with the parental notice law,” Bopp said. “They're very aware that this was in the offing because all their efforts to keep this law [out of] effect failed.”

In the state case, attorneys for Planned Parenthood also argued that the law contains provisions that have been “impliedly repealed” by a 2019 law repealing informed consent laws for abortions and the sweeping 2022 amendment to the Nevada Constitution ensuring equal rights for all “regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin.”

Attorneys noted that though most adolescents involve a parent in their abortion decision-making, the law has no exemptions for minors who are in foster care or are victims of sexual or physical abuse by their parents or guardians. In the latter case, attorneys wrote that the forced parental involvement can endanger the physical and emotional well-being of minors.

As written, SB510 requires physicians to notify parents or guardians before performing abortions on minors. Though minors seeking an abortion could also obtain court authorization to avoid the notification requirement, Planned Parenthood attorneys said it’s “an opaque and daunting process,” especially for minors.

“Subjecting a patient to the judicial bypass process, alone, additionally delays — and even, at times, denies — access to care and can compound the physiological, psychological, emotional, and other consequences associated with forcing an adolescent to continue an unwanted pregnancy,” they wrote.

Bopp described the new legal challenge from Planned Parenthood as “phony objections,” saying that arguments about difficulties in getting an abortion were well litigated under Roe v. Wade, and laws identical to Nevada’s notification law were upheld.

He added that it’s the state judicial system that regulates and authorizes procedures such as the notification law, and that’s a decision for that system, not Planned Parenthood.

“We just don't see any other claims having any merit,” Bopp said.

A representative for Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story was updated on 7/22/2025 at 3:53 p.m. to include news of the parental notification law going into effect and again at 4:39 p.m. to include an interview with James Bopp.