Nevadans Elect Reproductive Health Care Champions Jacky Rosen and Steve Sisolak

Las Vegas, NV -- Today, Nevadans voted decisively to send Steve Sisolak to Reno as their new Governor and to send Jacky Rosen to Washington to represent Nevadans in the Senate.  

Access to reproductive health care was on the ballot this November for Nevadans, as Adam Laxalt and Dean Heller each have long histories of supporting efforts to gut access to affordable health care and reproductive rights. As Nevada’s Attorney General, Laxalt signed onto amicus briefs supporting at least four different “abortion restrictions or pro-life entities in other states,” including an Alabama ban on second-trimester abortions. He also suggested he would “look into” changing a 1990 Nevada law protecting a right to an abortion before public outcry made him backtrack.  

Dean Heller betrayed Nevadans over and over again during his time in the Senate, as he  promised his constituents he’d protect access to Planned Parenthood when, in reality, he has voted nine times to block millions of women from getting birth control, cancer screenings and STI testing at Planned Parenthood health centers. Heller promised to protect Medicaid and then introduced and supported a bill that would have stripped Medicaid coverage.

Both candidates posed serious threats to reproductive health care access in Nevada and their failure to stand up for women is a major reason why Nevadans resoundingly rejected them at the ballot box this November.

Quote from Lindsey Harmon, Executive Director, Nevada Advocates of Planned Parenthood:  

“Congratulations to Jacky Rosen and Steve Sisolak on their decisive victories tonight. Nevadans, once again, showed that they want reproductive health care champions representing them at all levels of government. Dean Heller and Adam Laxalt ran divisive campaigns and voters clearly saw them as candidates who did not support affordable health care or access to reproductive health care. Their failure to stand up for women cost them at the ballot box this November.”

“We knocked on THOUSANDS of doors and contacted thousands more in an effort to get out the vote for Jacky Rosen and Steve Sisolak because we knew access to reproductive health care was on the line in Nevada in the midterm election. Nevada Advocates of Planned Parenthood Affiliates stands ready to work with Governor-elect Steve Sisolak, Democratic legislative leaders and Senator-elect Jacky Rosen to expand access to reproductive health care in Nevada.”  

Planned Parenthood Votes and Nevada Advocates of Planned Parenthood made the difference in the Nevada elections this November:  

Win Justice is an unprecedented joint effort to build lasting power to win key elections in 2018 and beyond by engaging and mobilizing infrequent voters (women, young people, Latino, and African American). Our program is different than others in the past that have been geared to mobilize infrequent voters. Previous efforts engaged these voters too close to Election Day to build real relationships. Win Justice has been knocking on doors and texting these voters for months. Most importantly the organizers reaching these voters come from the same communities where the voters live and work.

The Win Justice coalition, which includes Planned Parenthood Votes, Center for Community Change Action, ColorOfChange PAC, and the Service Employees International Union, together with their local partners, announced that they have knocked on 2.7 million doors in Florida, Michigan, and Nevada. The groups are talking to voters about gubernatorial races, U.S. Senate races, U.S. House races, and several down-ticket races in each state. In addition to door-to-door canvassing, the progressive groups have reached out to a total of 4.4 million infrequent voters through phone calls, peer-to-peer texting and events overlayed with a digital organizing program with over 38 million digital impressions.

Nevada voters turned out to elect Jacky Rosen and Steve Sisolak because they will champion access to reproductive health care in Florida.  

Steve Sisolak is a strong advocate for reproductive health care -- he trusts women to make their own health care decisions and supports access to reproductive health care services, including safe, legal abortion. Sisolak will defend Nevadans’ access to affordable health care and has pledged to protect Nevadans’ access to care at Planned Parenthood health centers.  

Jacky Rosen supports Planned Parenthood and has pledged to defend Planned Parenthood as a senator, much like she has a member of Congress. Jacky Rosen has worked to protect access to affordable contraception for all women. Beyond opposing Trump’s moves to make birth control harder to obtain, Rosen has sponsored legislation to make sure women have access to the birth control they need.