Abortion rights activists in Nevada said on Tuesday they have gathered more than enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot in November's elections.
Concretely, Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom President Lindsey Harmon told press that they got more than 200,000 signatures to vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution in November.
They needed to gather 102,000 valid signatures before the June 26 deadline to qualify and election officials in the state's 17 counties need to verify the signatures to make it official. It is unclear how long that process will take.
"The majority of Nevadans agree that the government should stay out of their personal and private decisions ... about our bodies, our lives and our futures," Harmon said at a rally, The Associated Press reported.
Abortion is currently legal in Nevada and backed by a 1990 law that makes it available for up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. However, advocates are seeking to strengthen measures after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in 2022, ending federal protection for such procedures.
The decision catalyzed an effort by Republican-led states to tighten or outright ban abortions in their territories, while many others are seeking to put the issue on the ballot in November.
21 states have either banned or restricted access to the procedure, while three others have blocked bans pending court decisions.
Democrats, both at the state and national level, have sought to take advantage of the issue at a political level to galvanize voters, also taking steps to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions in the November elections.
There are a total of eleven states that are likely to take abortion rights measures on the ballot in November at the moment: Florida, Maryland and New York are confirmed, while Arizona, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, Missouri and Arkansas are still moving towards this.
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