XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.atheism   
   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   Nevada’s GOP Governor Signs Democratic Abortion Proposal Into Law   
      
   The bill forbids the state from sharing information with others over who   
   has traveled to Nevada to obtain an abortion.   
      
   Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo signed into law on Tuesday a bill that   
   provides greater reproductive and privacy rights protections for   
   individuals coming to the state seeking abortion services.   
      
   With several states across the country enacting abortion bans or severe   
   restrictions, following the Supreme Court last summer overturning the   
   landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, several other states that have   
   kept or even expanded abortion rights have anticipated that some residents   
   in those restrictive areas may travel to them in order to obtain the   
   procedure.   
      
   Nevada is likely to be one of those states, given its history of   
   supporting abortion access — the state passed a bill in 1973, immediately   
   after Roe was decided, codifying the right to an abortion, although it   
   does restrict it past 24 weeks of pregnancy. In 1990, a ballot initiative   
   passed wherein voters added those protections to the state constitution as   
   well, making them reversible only if a similar ballot overturning them   
   occurs.   
      
      
   With polling showing that a majority of Nevadans support keeping abortion   
   rights in place, such a reversal is highly unlikely.   
      
   Concerned, however, that travelers to the state seeking abortion services   
   could still be punished by state legislatures elsewhere, through potential   
   laws forbidding such ventures, former Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat,   
   issued an executive order in June last year, when he was in office,   
   forbidding state agencies from cooperating with other states in   
   investigations of those travelers. That executive order became a campaign   
   issue when Sisolak and Lombardo squared off against each other in the 2022   
   gubernatorial election, which Lombardo won.   
      
      
      
   By   
       Chris Walker ,   
       Truthout   
      
   May 31, 2023   
      
   During the campaign season, Lombardo frequently waffled on the issue,   
   sometimes expressing support for more restrictive abortion measures and   
   other times saying he had no intention of changing the standard that   
   voters had endorsed in 1990. Lombardo, who has described himself as a   
   “pro-life” Catholic and who has also voiced support for restricting   
   certain kinds of birth control, at one point said he’d sign into law a   
   bill that would codify Sisolak’s order rather than extend the executive   
   order if he won the governorship.   
      
   Democrats in the state legislature held him to his word, and passed Senate   
   Bill 131, which would indeed codify Sisolak’s previous order, earlier this   
   month. On Tuesday, Lombardo, who received an endorsement in the election   
   last year from the far right, anti-abortion group National Right to Life,   
   signed the bill into law.   
      
   Democrats in the state legislature were happy that he did so. “I want to   
   thank (Lombardo) for following through on his commitment to ensuring that   
   Nevada won’t participate in prosecutions of women who come here to   
   exercise their reproductive rights,” said Senate Majority Leader Nicole   
   Cannizzaro (D), the sponsor of the bill.   
      
   Although lawmakers did express gratitude for Lombardo signing the bill,   
   it’s possible he did so for political reasons. The state Democratic Party   
   last year accused Lombardo of shifting his position so often because he   
   recognized being anti-abortion was not a popular opinion. In addition, the   
   state legislature would have likely been able to override Lombardo’s veto   
   anyway, rendering any action he took to block the bill a moot point.   
      
   Both houses of the state legislature must have two-thirds of their members   
   vote to override a veto in order to be successful. In the State Senate,   
   that requires 14 votes — the abortion protections bill passed in that   
   chamber in April with 15 votes. In the state Assembly, it requires 28   
   votes — 27 lawmakers in that chamber supported the bill, with a likely   
   28th vote also backing it, if a veto had happened, since one Democratic   
   legislator was absent on the day the bill was voted on in May.   
      
   Reproductive rights groups have lauded lawmakers for passing the bill into   
   law. NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada celebrated the bill’s passage earlier this   
   month, explaining its importance not just to individuals seeking abortion   
   care in the state but throughout the country as well.   
      
   “Nevada is playing a critical role in providing abortion care in the   
   Southwest as our neighboring states enact bans that force people to travel   
   to access care,” NARAL Pro-Choice Southwest Regional Director Caroline   
   Mello Roberson said in a statement on May 22.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)