A proposed amendment to enshrine access to abortion in Nevada’s constitution 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 Monday.
State officials will review the signatures, and they have until July 8 to fully certify the proposed amendment for the ballot.
Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, the group leading the effort, announced it had collected more than 200,000 signatures of registered voters — far more than the 103,000 it needed to move forward with the process of qualifying their proposal on the ballot.
The group said it also met the requirement that the total surpass a certain number of signatures in each of the state's four congressional districts.
The group had faced a June 26 deadline to submit the signatures.
"The number of signatures gathered in just over three months shows how deeply Nevadans believe in abortion rights and its importance to this moment in our nation’s history," Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom President Lindsey Harmon said at a news conference Monday.
In Nevada, abortion is already legal until the 24th week of pregnancy. But fearing that such rights could be undone in the future, reproductive rights advocates had sought to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would enshrine similar language — protecting abortion rights up until fetal viability — to make it close to impossible for lawmakers to ever eliminate the protections.
But even if the measure passes in November, voters would need to approve it again in 2026 before the Nevada constitution is formally amended under state law.
The ballot measure could help boost Democratic turnout in Nevada, a battleground state that is hosting competitive races for president and the U.S. Senate.
Nevada is one of 11 states where organizers are seeking 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.
