Abortion has been on the Nevada Ballot before

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Step back in time to 1990 and supporters of Question 7 on the Nevada Ballot could be seen with their signs standing along Reno’s main drag Virginia Street.

Question 7 was a referendum which asked Nevada voters if state abortion laws should stay just as they are.

Any changes would have to be through a vote of the people.

“What we were looking at was an overwhelming male legislature and overwhelming conservative legislature,” says Maggie Tracey who spearheaded “Campaign for Choice”. “And leaders of the legislature were specifically conservative and anti-choice. Many of them did not believe in abortion in cases of rape or incest.”

Tracey says the campaign aimed to bypass Nevada lawmakers at the time.

The campaign was the first of its kind in the country. Tracey says it was truly a grassroots effort with volunteers spread throughout the state.

The group had to gather 85,000 verified signatures to make it to the ballot, they collected 100,000.

“Keep the government out of our business.”

Tracey says that was the message.

The campaign did not use the word abortion as it was considered a “dirty word”.

She says she was surprised as to who supported the effort, and who didn’t. The Democratic Party did not support the measure, neither did Nevada’s Democratic Governor at the time.

The Catholic Bishop of Nevada sent a letter to all churches in the state requiring priests to read it to parishioners during Sunday Services.

“Abortion is a grave evil” he wrote.

Question 7 passed by more than 60% of the vote. The success story would later appear in Vogue Magazine.

Sitting next to Tracey, Lindsey Harmon president of the Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom. The next generation has taken the torch from “Campaign for Choice.”

Their November ballot question asks if the voter wants abortion to be a constitutional right here in Nevada.

Harmon says they had to collect more than 100,000 signatures. They handed in 200,000.

Listening to Tracey’s travails, Harmon says all that is old is new again.

“Reverting back to a time when you know women didn’t have the same rights men do, and in a pre-Rowe world,” says Harmon. “Clearly by the reversal of Rowe v. Wade.”

Harmon says now they have cell phones and social media to engage people-particularly young people to the campaign.

Tracey says Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom uses the word abortion all the time to make a stand,

“We are in a modern era where we understand abortion is health care,” says Harmon. “That these are complicated decisions that women are making with their doctors with their support system. This is not something politicians should be engaged in.”

Harmon says she is standing on the shoulders of those who came before her without the same rights of those who came before her.

While this ballot question is state specific, it is a national movement she says because there are fears of an impending federal abortion ban.

That fact is underscored by the amount of money Nevadans For Reproductive Freedom has taken in which stands at $4,000,000 dollars.

By contrast in 1990 “Campaign for Choice” worked on a budget of $300,000 dollars.

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