Judge Lets Nevada Enforce Pro-Life Law for Parental Notification on Abortion
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Anne Traum lifted the 1991 injunction barring enforcement of Nevada’s requirement that parents be notified when their minor children seek an abortion.
In a 27-page decision, Judge Traum ruled in Glick v. Ford that the parental notice provision will go into effect on April 30.
Melissa Clement, Executive Director of Nevada Right to Life, which provided vital financial support for the litigation, said
“For 40 years, young girls have been exploited in secrecy, their suffering ignored while those in power turned a blind eye. Today, that silence is broken. Parents will finally be involved, and protection will replace the neglect that allowed predators to thrive. The abortion industry has profited off hidden procedures, enabling abuse in the shadows. But no more—Nevada is taking a stand, demanding accountability and ensuring that never again will innocence be sacrificed for secrecy.”
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Passed in June 1985, Senate Bill 510 was sponsored by state Sen. Ray Rawson. “A federal court granted an injunction to keep the law from taking effect, and the injunction was made permanent in 1991,” according to Jessica Hill writing for the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Nevada Right to Life explained that the order blocking SB 510 was based on the right to abortion discovered in 1973 by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.
District Attorneys Rye and Pruyt argued that because the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overruled Roe, no basis remains to block the law. The district court agreed with that argument, finding that because the basis for the order blocking the parental-notice law was gone, the injunction against the law had to be lifted. The district court rejected the various arguments of Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte (“Planned Parenthood”), which contended that the parental-notice law should continue to be blocked. Notably, this included the district court’s determination that, because Dobbs overruled the legal basis for the 1991 order, there was no basis for the court to consider any other legal or equitable factors. The court also found insufficient Planned Parenthood’s claims that the order should be upheld on other constitutional grounds.
James Bopp, Jr., of The Bopp Law Firm, PC, and counsel for District Attorneys Rye and Pruyt, said, “The district court’s order marks a major victory for all Nevadans and for constitutional governance. The order blocking the parental-notice law became baseless, and therefore unlawful, under the controlling precedent of the Supreme Court as soon as Dobbs was decided.” Bopp added, “This common-sense law is vital to protecting both minors who have been targeted by predators and the parents of those minors.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.