Represented by ACLU Nevada, Silver State Hope Fund filed a suit against the state’s Health and Human Services Department in August 2023. The suit argued that the state was violating the ERA through its so-called Medicaid “coverage ban” on abortion. ACLU Nevada argued that not including abortion in Medicaid “disadvantages women because of their sex, including their reproductive capabilities.”
According to reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, attorneys for the state of Nevada argued that the state has “a legitimate interest in efficiently utilizing Medicaid funds — both federal and state — to maximize the services provided to Medicaid recipients” and that “if Medicaid were to cover elective abortions, it would have to divert state money from covering other services because it cannot use federal matching dollars to pay for elective abortions.”
All funding for abortion would have to come out of the state’s budget because of the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition of federal tax dollars from being used for abortion.
Archbishop George Thomas of Las Vegas told CNA that he is “dismayed” by the decision and the impact it could have on the state.
“The Catholic Church has long advocated for access to affordable health care, including Medicaid expansion. However, by ruling Medicaid in Nevada must cover all abortions, our precious unborn in the womb — the most vulnerable — are now at a higher risk of being aborted,” he said. “I certainly hope this ruling will be appealed and overturned.”
ACLU attorney Rebecca Chan, meanwhile, celebrated the ruling, saying in a statement: “We are relieved that the court correctly recognized the severe harms of Nevada’s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion, which directly violates the recently passed state Equal Rights Amendment.”
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