Nevada bill to protect abortion patients from prosecution elsewhere heads to governor's desk
People traveling to Nevada for abortions may soon have an added layer of protection against any draconian attempts to prosecute them for that choice, if a bill passed Monday by the legislature is signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo.
The first-term Republican governor now has five days to sign or veto Senate Bill 131, which would prohibit the State of Nevada from assisting in the arrest or extradition of someone charged in another state for a crime related to reproductive health care services such as abortion, unless that crime is also a crime in Nevada. Abortion is legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks in pregnancy and beyond if the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
If Lombardo takes no action, the bill will automatically become law.
The bill also bars occupational boards from disciplining or disqualifying a medical provider because they have provided abortions or other reproductive health care services. SB 131 was spearheaded by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, who on Saturday gave birth to her second child.
Shortly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade last June, Nevada abortion providers began reporting seeing more out-of-state patients, and anti-abortion rights advocates began pushing to expand abortion bans to include criminalizing traveling out of state for an abortion.
Lombardo in a February interview with KNPR said any “changes in totality of the abortion question needs to be a vote of the people” but said of not cooperating with other states in their efforts to prosecute Nevada patients that “this particular item involving abortions, I could support if it stands on its own.”
https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2023/05/23/nevada-bill-to-protect-abortion-patients-from-prosecution-elsewhere-heads-to-governors-desk/
= new reply since forum marked as read
