Joe Lombardo’s anti-abortion agenda is on full display after he instructed the state to remove warnings from its website about the misleading tactics of crisis pregnancy centers. This comes as no surprise considering he previously used both campaign and taxpayer funds to uplift anti-abortion organizations. And just weeks ago, Lombardo vetoed a bill to protect and expand access to contraception.
Just like Lombardo “quietly support[ed]” anti-abortion groups on the campaign trail and as sheriff, he’s now quietly implementing his anti-abortion agenda as Governor…
Nevada Current: Crisis pregnancy center warning quietly removed from state abortion info website
April Corbin Girnus
June 28, 2023
Key Points:
- Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo instructed the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services to remove from its website information warning the public about crisis pregnancy centers.
- A four-paragraph section with the subheading “Report Misleading Abortion Service Providers” first appeared on an “Abortion Information for Nevadans” page launched by DHHS in October 2022, under the direction of Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak. It described CPCs as “organizations that seek to intercept women considering abortion.”
- “CPCs often advertise that they provide medical services, advice, and counseling in a clinical setting,” the section continued. “However, CPCs do not provide comprehensive, accurate, or evidence-based clinical information. Instead, the primary goal of CPCs is to dissuade people seeking abortions from obtaining the procedure.”
- The site then linked to an existing portal for reporting complaints to the state and encouraged the public to report any misleading practices by Nevada CPCs.
- The Wayback Machine, a website that archives internet pages, shows the information appearing on the page on April 13 and May 28. The Current noticed the CPC section had been removed on June 1.
- Lombardo spokesperson Elizabeth Ray confirmed that the governor’s office instructed the DHHS to remove the information.
- Nevada Right to Life, an anti-abortion rights group, in mid-May asked its followers to sign a virtual petition encouraging Lombardo to remove the CPC language, saying it was “derogatory.”
- Lombardo, who unseated Sisolak last year, is already affiliated with CPCs, of which Nevada has at least seven. Lombardo as a gubernatorial candidate attended a fundraising gala for Women’s Resource Medical Centers of Southern Nevada, a CPC in Las Vegas. WRMCSN at that event auctioned off a helicopter ride-along donated by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, which Lombardo oversaw as then-sheriff of Clark County.
Read the full story here.
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