The Secretary of State's office in Nevada recently confirmed a proposed constitutional amendment protecting access to abortion will appear on the November ballot as Question 6. The move comes as the latest data shows the impact of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the Mountain West.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortions have increased in the past two years, largely due to medication abortions. And, infant mortality rates increased for the first time in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains oversees clinics in Colorado and Southern Nevada among others. Spokesperson Jack Teter said these results were foreseeable because infant health is strongly tied to maternal health.
“All aspects of reproductive and sexual health care are interconnected and when you prohibit one aspect of care there's a ripple effect on the overall reproductive health and wellness of patients,” Teter said.
Teter said this is a national crisis and making it a crime in half the country is “not sustainable.”“There's a really obvious chart here of what happens when fringe politicians push bad health policies that goes directly against advice from medical professionals and they're still pushing this cruel agenda,” he said
Teter also said infant mortality increases and maternal complications are having a significant effect on Black and Indigenous women. The most common causes of infant mortality are congenital malformations as well as premature births and low birth weight.
There is a history of the state protecting abortions. A 1990 voter referendum codified the protections for abortion as outlined by Roe v. Wade into state law. But according to Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the group sponsoring the November initiative, that statute does not mean the right is permanently protected in the state constitution. November's Question 6 intends to enshrine abortion rights into the Nevada constitution seeks to build upon and improve existing protections while taking into account the changing abortion rights national landscape after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
