Nevada is the only U.S. state that explicitly criminalizes women for ending their pregnancies; people who violate the law can be charged with manslaughter, a felony with a sentence of one to 10 years in prison. (Prosecutors in other states can and do charge women under other statutes, such as concealing a birth.) Frazier served two years in jail before being released on appeal in 2021. But her case is still open and prosecutors could decide to retry her.
Multiple sources say that state reproductive rights groups decided not to lobby for the bill because they claimed doing so could impact final passage of a constitutional amendment to codify abortion access. That ballot measure, known as Question 6, would enshrine in the state constitution the right to abortion until fetal viability, which is different for every pregnancy but thought to occur around 24 weeks. It’s a citizen-initiated amendment spearheaded by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, a group led by the head of Planned Parenthood Nevada Votes. Question 6 passed comfortably in November with 64 percent, but voters have to approve it again next year due to a quirk in the state process.
This posture did not change, even after Donald Trump won the election. “They had ample opportunity to decide to create protections for people and change some of the old laws, and they just decided they weren’t going to,” said the source, who, like other people in this story, didn’t want to use their name for fear of professional retaliation.
“Here we are in this time where Democrats really need to be standing up. Why are we cowering?” this person said. They added that they “can’t understand the logic” of how erasing the old law would affect passage of the amendment. “People being like, ‘Yeah, they repealed an ancient statute,’ that’s not going to be a reason people aren’t going to vote [for Question 6],” they said.
The first person recalled that representatives from Planned Parenthood Votes Nevada said they didn’t support repealing the 1911 law in the lead-up to the final passage of Question 6 because the old law dealt with abortions later in pregnancy, a topic major groups tend to avoid. “I have heard them say that ‘we don’t want to touch the 24 weeks,’” the source said. This is a strange justification to some advocates, because repealing the statute regarding self-managed abortions after 24 weeks wouldn’t change anything about care that’s available in clinics. Providers could not suddenly offer abortions after 24 weeks. “I’m not understanding how that is a real argument for not passing [S.B. 139],” they said. “It just doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
The New Republic contacted Planned Parenthood Nevada Votes for comment about the summer 2024 meeting and whether it encouraged lawmakers to have a quiet session in the interest of passing Question 6 next year, as well as whether it declined to support the repeal bill because the law in question concerns abortion after 24 weeks. We have yet to receive a response.
Regarding the Senate-led constitutional amendment that failed to advance, the spokesperson said Cannizzaro and other advocates “decided that enshrining a constitutional right to abortion was the top priority” and that, since Question 6 would already be on the 2026 ballot, “it was ultimately better not to have two competing reproductive rights measures.” (Cannizzaro is rumored to be running for attorney general next year.)
Krystal Petersen, co-chair of the University of Nevada Boyd Law School chapter of If/When/How Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, is part of a group that supports the repeal of this law. Petersen said the choice whether to investigate and prosecute people suspected of having an abortion is up to elected sheriffs and district attorneys. That may not be a problem in the counties home to Las Vegas or Reno, but it could be an issue in more rural areas, like Winnemucca, where Frazier lived at the time. “We do not just protect two counties in this state, we protect every Nevada resident,” she said. “We will keep fighting until S.B. 139—or something like it—is implemented.”
“When I tell people [about the 1911 law], they look at me like I’m nuts. I say, ‘No, for real, this is on the books here, and it’s the only place that makes it a felony,’” the first person said. “What is going on? And why aren’t the Democrats doing anything?”
Failure to repeal the 100-year-old statute threatens not only Frazier specifically but anyone who loses their pregnancy after 24 weeks, said Garin Marschall, co-founder of Patient Forward, an organization that advocates for people who need abortions later in pregnancy. “It invites the state to investigate every stillbirth because it could potentially be a violation of the law,” said Marschall, who runs the organization with his wife, Erika; she had a third-trimester abortion in 2026.
Still, states don’t need to have explicit laws criminalizing abortion-seekers like Nevada’s in order to lock people up. To Patient Forward and other advocates critical of enshrining the fetal viability line in state constitutions, ballot measures that only protect abortion until 24 weeks give governments too much power. “If you draw a line in the law, the state is going to police that line,” he said. “That leads to surveilling, investigating, and ultimately punishing pregnant people.”
“All of those [cases] are problematic,” he said. “And all of those are something that we—whether you’re in the abortion rights, health, or justice movement—should be working to stop.”
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