Nevada Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak held a round table event on Thursday about the impact a national abortion ban could have on the Silver State if Republicans are elected in November.
Sisolak took part in the discussion at 11 a.m. PT with Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) and legal experts to supposedly “underscore the importance electing pro-choice leaders up and down the ballot in November,” according to the event announcement.
The event announcement acknowledged that Nevadans codified abortion up to 24 weeks in a 1990 ballot initiative — which can only be changed by Nevada voters — but the vulnerable Nevada Democrats insisted Republicans “have already made it clear that they will pursue legislation to enact a nationwide abortion ban if they take control of Congress.” However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said he does not believe a national abortion ban will pass if Republicans take control back in November.
“It takes 60 votes in the Senate for either side to prevail on this issue,” McConnell said after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “So I think the democratic process on this issue is going to work out at the state level.”
Elizabeth Ray, the spokesperson for GOP gubernatorial candidate Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, slammed the Democrat incumbent for campaigning on a “settled law” while Nevadans struggle with more pressing problems.
“Let’s be clear: abortion is settled law in Nevada – only the voters can change it and Steve Sisolak knows that. It’s time Steve Sisolak talked about what he is responsible for: Nevada is 3,000 teachers short, 4,000 nurses short, and 95,000 small businesses have been forced to close their doors for good,” Ray said in a statement. “The Nevada Highway Patrol is 50 percent vacant, a third of Nevada corrections positions are open, and government agencies won’t answer the phone. Steve Sisolak can’t be bothered to do his job, so he’d rather sit and fear-monger for votes.”
Lombardo, who is pro-life, says on his campaign website that despite his beliefs, “Nevadans decided long ago that the issue of abortion should only be decided by Nevada voters themselves” and said he “trusts the people of Nevada to make the important decision of what legislation to send to his desk.” He also says he believes access to contraceptives is “an essential part of healthcare and preventing unwanted pregnancies.”
The campaign added that Sisolak has “centered his campaign around single-issue scare tactics” and that it is “far past time for Sisolak to answer where he stand on critical abortion issues.” Some of those issues include whether the incumbent believes there should be no restrictions on abortion, whether he supports partial birth abortions, whether he would support making abortion unlimited in Nevada, if he believes in parental notification, and if he plans to campaign for abortion with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Sisolak often tweets about abortion as “reproductive freedoms” and criticizes Lombardo for believing that unborn babies are human lives deserving of protection.
The Democrat governor has also called crisis pregnancy centers “predatory and misleading,” even in the aftermath of more than 100 attacks against pro-life groups nationwide since the beginning of May, and said Lombardo is a “threat” to the “right to an abortion.”
But no matter how much Democrats in Nevada harp on abortion, voters are still most worried about the economy, which is in a state of disarray in large part to the leadership of Democrats and Biden. A recent poll showed that Nevada voters are more concerned about the economy (34 percent) than abortion (13 percent), election fraud (11 percent), and education (10 percent.) Most notably, 74 percent of likely Nevada voters ranked the state’s economy as “fair to poor,” and voters 3-to-1 said their standard of living is “worse than two years ago.”
It should also be noted that most Nevadans do not agree with Democrats’ radical abortion-on-demand agenda. An August poll conducted by OH Predictive Insights for the Nevada Independent found that more than half (51 percent) of Nevadans believe “abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances.” Thirty-nine percent said “abortion should be legal under any circumstances,” and 10 percent said “abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.”