By Dana Gentry
U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown says he won’t support a hypothetical national ban on abortion. But the Republican challenger to Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen won’t say how he will vote in November on a very real abortion measure on Nevada’s ballot.
If the ballot question passes in consecutive elections in 2024 and 2026, abortion rights that mirror those guaranteed by Roe v. Wade for nearly half a century would be enshrined in the state constitution. The protections exceed those favored by Brown, who has said he opposes abortion except in the case of medical emergencies, incest and rape.
“We’re talking about someone’s life and someone who is really in a tough spot and that’s why I’m not going to support a federal abortion ban,” Brown, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, says in a new ad.
“I believe very strongly in letting ‘the people’ decide,” he doubled down this weekend in an editorial in the Las Vegas Sun.
But Brown is unwilling so far to let the people know where he stands on Nevada’s ballot question.
“Yeah, I’ll be one of approximately one and a half million voters at that point in time,” Brown told a Reno TV station in May when asked how he’ll vote. “And, and I have always said whether it was a decade ago or yesterday that this issue is something that should be addressed by the voters in their states. And so I respect that, I have always respected that, and the voters of Nevada will again determine what the approach is.”
Brown’s campaign spokeswoman has ignored requests to respond to the Current’s questions on the Nevada measure.
In his op-ed, Brown suggests the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which leaves the abortion issue to states, “strengthened Nevada’s protections for abortion.” He criticizes Rosen for supporting “rules that have the potential to go further than Nevadans may desire” via the Women’s Health Protection Act.
The Dobbs decision has resulted in a patchwork of state abortion laws, some of which restrict abortion to the weeks before most women know they are pregnant. It has forced women from states such as Texas, where Brown says he would have worked to pass a restrictive abortion law, to seek medical care in other states, often under excruciating circumstances such as knowing a pregnancy is not viable.
Women who seek to escape state restrictions by traveling to states such as Nevada, where abortion remains legal under state law, are being monitored. Idaho has adopted an abortion tracking ban.
Critics contend Brown, by focusing on his pledge not to support a federal ban, is gaslighting voters in Nevada, a battleground state that could determine not only the presidency but also the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. They point to his record, which includes supporting bans with no exceptions, and managing the campaign of a pro-life congressional candidate in Texas.
