A proposed amendment to Nevada’s constitution to enshrine access to abortion is one step closer to appearing on the November ballot after a coalition of reproductive rights advocates submitted the required number of signatures to state officials on Monday.
State officials will review the signatures and they There is time until July 8 fully approve the proposed change for the ballot.
The group Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, which is leading the effort, announced it has collected more than 200,000 signatures from registered voters — more than the 103,000 needed to advance through the process of identifying its proposition on the ballot.
The group also said it has met a requirement that the total pass a certain number of signatures in each of the state’s four congressional districts.
The group faced a June 26 deadline to submit signatures.
“The number of signatures collected in just over three months shows how deeply Nevadans believe in abortion rights and its importance at this moment in our nation’s history,” Lindsey Harmon, president of Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, said at a news conference Monday.
Abortion is now legal in Nevada up to the 24th week of pregnancy. But fearing that such rights may be revoked in the future, reproductive rights they looked for lawyers put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would put similar language — protecting abortion rights until fetal viability — to make it impossible for lawmakers to ever remove the protections.
But even if the measure passes in November, voters would have to approve it again in 2026 before the Nevada constitution can be formally amended by state law.
The ballot measure could help boost Democratic turnout in Nevada, a battleground state that hosts competitive races for president and U.S. Senate.
Nevada is one of 11 states where organizers are trying to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions through citizen-led ballot initiatives. The measures are officially on the ballot in Colorado, Maryland, Florida and South Dakota.