Nevada District Attorneys Seeks Order to Allow Enforcement of Nevada's Parental-Notice Law for Minors Seeking Abortion

On Thursday, Jason D. Woodbury, Carson City District Attorney, and Stephen B. Rye, Lyon County District Attorney, petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to order the district court to lift an injunction which bars enforcement of Nevada's requirement that parents of minors seeking abortion be notified before any abortion. The injunction should have been lifted because it was based on a federal abortion right that no longer exists after the 2022 Dobbs decision overruled Roe v. Wade, but the district court refused to do so.

Nevada's parental-notice law requires that a custodial parent or guardian be notified before a physician performs an abortion on an unmarried or unemancipated minor unless the physician believes “an abortion is immediately necessary to preserve the patient's life or health.” But the minor may seek a judicial bypass, in which case notice would not be required if she proves (a) “she is mature enough to make an intelligent and informed decision; (b) she is “financially independent or emancipated,” or (c) the notice “would be detrimental to her best interests.”

In 1985, abortion providers sued to halt enforcement of this parental-notice law based on the abortion right announced in Roe v. Wade . The order halting this common sense law has lost its legal basis since Roe was overruled and should be lifted.

But instead of lifting the legally baseless injunction, the district court ordered the parties to submit briefing on alternative legal theories it thought might support the injunction. The district court ordered this briefing despite the fact that the alternative theories were never argued before and some were never even alleged in the case. By doing so, the district court exceeded its authority under the law.

James Bopp, Jr., of The Bopp Law Firm, PC, and counsel for district attorneys Woodbury and Rye, says: “The district court's order allows Planned Parenthood to search for any way to keep this legally baseless injunction in place. Laws requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortion have long been upheld even under Roe v. Wade . With Roe overruled, there is no reason why Nevada's parental-notification law should not be enforced. And notifying parents is vital to protecting both parents and their pregnant daughters.”

The petition for the writ of mandamus can be found here.