LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada and its partners, along with Governor Steve Sisolak, held an emergency press conference Friday afternoon following a decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the near 50-year constitutional right to abortion.
The organization discussed its commitment to fighting for the right to abortion care in the face of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling, leaders said.
“While the loss of abortion access is devastating for the over 36 million women, trans and nonbinary people of reproductive age living in states which will now soon have abortion bans in place, the burden for these abortion bans fall on Black, Latinx, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, rural, and poor communities,” said the Director of Regional Organizing with Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada. “The stakes are high and the fight ahead of us is long, and while we are devastated, we are not defeated.”
The organization was joined by the Wild West Action Fund, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Nevada’s National Organization for Women chapter, One APIA, and Senator Jackie Rosen at the conference.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Action Fund and Nevada’s NOW chapter will also be joining groups responding to the court’s decision across the country. The organizations held a demonstration on Friday at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas.
Nevada is one of nine states with abortion rights protections — the state protects the right to an abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. The protection can only be removed by a vote of the people.
Although abortion rights remain protected in Nevada, the state could see a change in its reproductive healthcare landscape as residents seeking abortions in states introducing bans travel elsewhere to obtain abortion care.