Harris warns a second Trump term would endanger abortion rights in Nevada

Vice President Kamala Harris urged Nevadans to deny Donald Trump a second term in order to protect access to abortion and birth control via the ballot box in November.

Harris’s visit to Las Vegas Monday follows a decision by the Arizona Supreme Court last week to reinstate a Civil War-era law banning all abortions, except those needed to save a patient’s life. At the time the 1864 law passed, Arizona was still not a state. 

“This is not a partisan issue,” Harris said Monday. “There is a consensus among the American people that it is wrong to take rights from the people of our country. So momentum is on our side.”

Abortion is protected in Nevada under state law, which voters approved via a 1990 referendum. But proposals for a national abortion ban by Republicans in Congress and by former President Donald Trump have sparked fears of a ban in Nevada. Trump previously indicated support for a national 15-week ban and has repeatedly bragged about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade in the past.

During her remarks, Harris highlighted past comments by Trump vowing to further restrict abortion and reproductive health care in the United States. The vice president made it clear she believes Trump is largely responsible for the dissolution of Roe v. Wade and laid the groundwork for the many state abortion bans that have followed since.

“Let’s not forget, Donald Trump made clear his intention to select three members of the United States Supreme Court so that they could overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade. It was his stated intention and they did as he intended,” Harris said. 

Harris warned voters that a second-Trump term would put reproductive health care at greater risk, and lead to a national abortion ban.

Trump recently backpedaled on a national abortion ban, however. The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee released a video last week advocating for state legislatures and state courts to regulate abortion, not Congress. 

“The states will determine by vote, or legislation, or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a nearly five-minute video he posted to social media last week.

The next day the Arizona Supreme Court banned abortions in that state, prompting Trump to urge the Arizona legislature to “remedy” the court’s ruling. 

Trump didn’t say in the video if he would veto a national ban or work to prevent it from reaching his desk, in the event he is reelected president and has a Republican-controlled Congress. Trump also didn’t comment specifically in the video about whether he would seek to enforce an 1873 anti-obscenity law that many anti-abortion advocates say could ban the mailing of medication abortion.

Harris on Monday also promoted a Nevada ballot initiative that would further secure abortion access in the state by enshrining abortion access in the state constitution. The rally doubled as a signature-gathering event, as volunteers in bright orange vests carried clipboards and collected signatures for the ballot initiative. If enough signatures are obtained, Nevadans will get to vote on the ballot question during the general election.

“Democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it,” Harris said.

Harris made her case for reelecting Democrats down the ballot alongside Arizona state Senator Eva Burch, Representative for Nevada’s 1st congressional district Dina Titus, Nevada Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford.

Titus said it’s clear from conversations among Republicans in Congress that Republican lawmakers “want a nationwide ban on abortion.”

“I don’t care what Donald Trump says now to dance around the issue. He will be right there leading that effort, you can count on it,” Titus said. 

“Trust me, next it’s going to be birth control. There’s no end to it. And that is coming down the pike.”