LAS VEGAS — A federal judge paused a decades-old Nevada law set to go into effect April 30 that would require doctors to notify parents of a minor seeking an abortion.

U.S. District Judge Anne Traum granted a request from Planned Parenthood last week to stop the law from going into effect until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit resolves a motion for a pending appeal that Planned Parenthood plans to file.

Traum ordered that Planned Parenthood must file its motion in the Ninth Circuit within seven days. If it doesn’t, the pause of the parental notification law will expire, according to the court order.

Once the Ninth Circuit makes its decision, Planned Parenthood must inform Traum within five days of the Ninth Circuit’s order. If the Ninth Circuit denies Planned Parenthood’s motion, Traum will issue an order lifting the pause.

The Nevada law has gone unenforced since it was enacted in 1985. It was set to go into effect at the end of April after Traum ruled that since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there was no longer a legal basis that allowed a longstanding injunction to prevent the parental notification law from going into effect.

It will require the parental notification of a minor’s intent to have an abortion. Minors for whom notification would not be in their best interest can circumvent the requirement via a court order, according to the ruling. The law does not require parental approval, only notification.

The law, passed as Senate Bill 510 in June 1985, was sponsored by Las Vegas Republican state Sen. Ray Rawson, who served from 1985 to 2001. A federal court granted an injunction to keep the law from taking effect, and the injunction was made permanent in 1991.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that effectively overturned the precedent established by Roe v. Wade, district attorneys in Nevada’s rural counties moved to lift the permanent injunction.

___

©2025 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com.. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.