Nevada Supreme Court Blocks Parental Notification Law on Abortion

In a decision pro-life advocates decried as a betrayal of Nevada’s children, the Nevada Supreme Court has blocked enforcement of a 40-year-old state law requiring abortionists to notify parents before killing a teenagers’ baby in an abortion.

The ruling reverses a lower court decision and directs issuance of a preliminary injunction preventing Senate Bill 510 from taking effect while the legal challenge proceeds.

The 1985 pro-life law required notification to a parent or guardian — or judicial approval — for abortions involving unmarried, unemancipated girls under 18. It never fully took effect due to prior court injunctions but became potentially enforceable after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The court sided with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion challengers, ruling the law unconstitutionally vague.

Justices focused on the phrase “personally notified,” finding it failed to provide clear guidance to physicians on how notification should occur or what constitutes a “reasonable effort.”

Nevada Right to Life sharply criticized the decision.

“The Nevada Supreme Court betrayed Nevada’s children,” the group said in a statement. “It struck down Senate Bill 510, a 40-year-old law that asked one simple, humane thing: before a doctor performs an abortion on a girl under 18, her parents deserve to know. Not to give permission. Not to give consent. Simply and solely to know.”

The organization stressed the law’s protective intent for vulnerable minors.

“Think about who this law protected. A 13-year-old doesn’t walk into a clinic alone. Sometimes she is brought there by the man who got her pregnant. Sometimes that man is her abuser. Sometimes he is a trafficker trying to make the evidence of his crime disappear before her family ever finds out. SB 510 was not a veto for parents. It was a lifeline. And for girls in dangerous homes, a court bypass was still available. This law left no one behind.”

Nevada Right to Life called the court’s reasoning flawed.

“The Court’s excuse for striking it down is shameful. The justices looked at the phrase ‘personally notified,’ admitted in their own opinion that it has a plain and clear meaning, and then struck the law down anyway. They invented a long list of imaginary problems that might someday confuse a doctor. This was not honest legal analysis. It was a conclusion dressed up as reasoning. Courts across the country have upheld laws exactly like this one for decades. Not a single one was ever thrown out because adults could not understand the words ‘notify the parents.’ Nevada’s justices chose to be the exception, and they chose it for a reason.”

The group also faulted Attorney General Aaron Ford’s defense of the law.

“And they were made bolder by an Attorney General who refused to truly fight. Aaron Ford is running for governor. Planned Parenthood, the same organization that went to court to kill this law, has endorsed his campaign. His office gave up key legal ground, dropped arguments in the middle of the case, and never once stood before the Court and said what needed to be said: this law exists because girls are being exploited, and their parents have a right to know. That is not a defense. That is a surrender with paperwork.”

The ruling does not permanently invalidate the law but keeps it blocked pending further proceedings.

Abortion remains legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks under a 1990 voter-approved initiative. Pro-life supporters argue the decision prioritizes abortion over family involvement and the safety of young girls.

ACTION: Aaron Ford’s office needs to be flooded with calls and complaints until he cannot ignore the people of Nevada for one more minute. Tell him exactly what he needs to hear: Stand with parents, not with predators of little girls!