Legislative Update – Senate Bill 131 Takes the Focus

After being one of the key topics in Nevada and around the nation in the November 2022 elections, Nevada State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro introduced Senate Bill 131 last week. The topic is abortion. In Nevada, abortion is not constitutionally protected and in light of the Roe v. Wade decision last year by the US Supreme Court, some believe abortion needs further protection in Nevada. Abortion is protected by state statute, codified by the voters in the 1990s, and cannot be changed by legislators, but Cannizzaro and fellow Democratic senators believe that this protection does not extend to persons from other states where abortion has been or is being banned. 

SB 131 would eliminate the ability of any healthcare licensing board to disqualify potentially unsafe abortionists from practicing in Nevada; prohibit the governor from surrendering, or issuing a warrant of arrest for a person in this state who is charged in another state with a criminal violation of the laws of that other state; and, prohibits state agencies in the Executive Department of the state government from assisting in a criminal investigation initiated in another state.

Senator Cannizzaro said in a Twitter post: “I am turning in my bill to protect patients and providers from draconian abortion bans in other states. If you’re coming here to seek reproductive care, we want you to know you’re safe and welcome in Nevada.”

Assemblyman Greg Koenig (R-AD38) said, “It’s just a show, Nevada allows other residents to get abortions already, it already can be done.” He sees this as a 2024 campaign weapon that will be used against those who vote against the bill. He described the supporters in the legislature as saying, “Look at us, we support abortion,” when in fact it does not have any effect on Nevada residents at all. “Instead of helping Nevadans, we’re wasting valuable bills on people from outside of Nevada.”

State Senator Robin Titus (R-SD17) also spoke about the bill. “I won’t be supporting this bill” she stated. She objects to a portion of the bill that provides protection for an abortion provider from another state who might have a malpractice suit filed against them and upon moving to Nevada that provider would be protected from extradition back to that state. “We don’t protect any other licensed profession like we would with this bill,” she said, and “it would carve out one set of professionals over another.” She, like Koenig, sees the bill as less about abortion and more as “campaign fodder” especially putting pressure on Governor Lombardo.

The bill was heard in front of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on Monday rather than the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

Newly elected Republican Governor Joe Lombardo indicated last week that he would be supportive of the bill. SB 131 would also codify former Governor Steve Sisolak’s Executive Order issued in response to the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. 

In an interview last week, the governor said he would support the bill. “Yes, I would, but with that being said, as long as [it’s a] clean bill. You know, what happens in government, when bills are presented, quite often amendments are thrown on ‘em, because people want to get their projects involved in the bill and because they see success as the backbone of the bill. And I want to be sure that doesn’t happen. Because changes in the totality of the abortion question need to be a vote of the people. But this particular item involving abortions, I could support if it stands on its own.” 

During the campaign last year, in a statement Lombardo also said, “I am not running for Governor of California or Alabama. I cannot control what other states do, but I can continue to make it clear we are not going to prosecute women for having an abortion in Nevada.”