In a new poll circulated by The Nevada Independent, results show a majority of respondents among that state’s residents in favor of formally establishing the right to abortion in that state’s Constitution.
Nevada already has legal protections for abortion, but as in other states like New York, Michigan, and California where amendments to state Constitutions containing protections for abortion have already been either proposed or passed, the added level of protection for the procedure is just that: extra security. Amending these states’ guiding documents would make any future efforts by Republicans or any other interest to undo allowances for abortion that much more difficult. In the Nevada poll, a full 62 percent supported a proposed change to their state Constitution that would protect abortion, while only 18 percent of respondents from the general group specifically opposed the idea. Even among Republicans, support was at 41 percent.
Nevada voters themselves would eventually vote on the proposed change to their state Constitution before any such update is actually implemented. The poll also featured a question about whether to raise the minimum age for purchasing what have been termed long guns, and 68 percent backed doing so. Such is the exact policy that could have perhaps most directly stopped the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year, in which the teenager who carried out the attack used a weapon he obtained legally. Florida, led at the time by Republicans, imposed that exact update after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland in that state. Elsewhere in actual policy, Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis recently signed into law new restrictions on young people obtaining firearms, raising the minimum age to 21, although various exceptions were available.
On abortion, Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore has apparently signed a legislative measure that provided for a process of formally extending protections available under that state’s Constitution to abortion, depending on future approval from voters in the next elections. New York voters will also have a proposed amendment to protect abortion on upcoming ballots. Elsewhere, some Republican officials have continued to pursue new restrictions, like in Florida, where the procedure is banned after six weeks under the terms of a new law recently signed by that state’s GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, who has made advocacy on behalf of what have been termed culture war issues foundational to his public approach.
