The Most Reverend Daniel H. Mueggenborg, Bishop of Reno, called on parishioners across the diocese to oppose Question 6, the abortion-rights amendment headed for a second and final vote on Nevada’s November ballot.
What the Letter Says
Writing “Dear Parishioners,” Bishop Mueggenborg called Question 6 “a very dangerous abortion amendment” that would “cause the following harm” if approved a second time.
His first objection is scope: he wrote that abortion, already legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, would be “permitted to the 9th month of pregnancy” under the amendment.
His second objection is parental involvement.
The amendment, he wrote, “ratifies removal of parental notification and family involvement” from a minor’s abortion decision — and he drove the point home with a comparison: “Parental consent is required to give a student a Tylenol,” yet Question 6 “would allow a minor to obtain an abortion without a parent even knowing.”
His third and most detailed objection is about who is legally permitted to perform the procedure. Nevada currently requires a licensed physician. Question 6 replaces that with the term “health care practitioner,” and that word choice is doing real work.
Under NRS 439A.0195, “practitioner” is a statutory term that reaches far beyond doctors: it explicitly covers nurses, dentists, opticians, and medical laboratory technicians, among others.
So the ballot question’s soft phrase, “healthcare professional,” is not what actually gets written into the Nevada Constitution “health care practitioner” is, and by law that includes people with no medical degree at all.
Mueggenborg also warned the amendment:
“severely threatens the state’s ability to regulate abortion clinics for basic health, safety, and sanitary conditions.”
The bishop closed by urging Catholics to “vote NO on the November ballot,” to speak with neighbors and friends, and to pick up a bilingual advisory from the Nevada Catholic Conference at parish entrances.
Read our prior coverage:
Nevada’s Abortion Law Isn’t Going Anywhere, So What Does Question 6 Actually Change?
He was blunt about what he sees as the other side’s strategy, writing that supporters “will use misinformation and fear to trick people into thinking that they will lose all access to abortion” if the amendment fails, a claim he called “simply not true,” since abortion access is already written into Nevada law.
Background on Question 6
Question 6, titled the “Reproductive Rights Amendment” on the ballot, would add a new Section 25 to Article 1 of the Nevada Constitution. As proposed, it reads in part that:
“all individuals shall have a fundamental right to abortion performed or administered by a qualified health care practitioner until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient, without interference from the state or its political subdivisions.”
Because it is a constitutional amendment rather than a statute, Nevada law requires it to pass in two consecutive general elections. Voters approved it once on November 5, 2024; it now needs a second majority vote to take effect.
Nevada’s existing abortion law, NRS 442.250, was itself approved directly by voters in a 1990 referendum and can only be changed by another vote of the people, not by the legislature.
Under current law, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks (six months) of pregnancy for any reason and must be performed by a licensed physician. Late-term abortions performed by a physician can happen in a hospital setting if medically necessary.
Combined with the amendment’s removal of parental notification and its shift of the “fetal viability” determination to the treating practitioner’s discretion rather than a fixed legal standard, the measure locks in the industry’s extreme deregulation as untouchable constitutional law.
Who Is Bishop Mueggenborg
Daniel H. Mueggenborg, 64, has led the Diocese of Reno since 2021. Born and raised in rural Okarche, Oklahoma, he earned a geology degree from Oklahoma State University before entering seminary and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Tulsa in 1989.
He later completed a biblical theology degree in Rome and spent years on the administrative staff of the Pontifical North American College there. Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop of Seattle in 2017, then appointed him Bishop of Reno in July 2021; he was installed at St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral that September, succeeding Bishop Randolph Calvo.
The Diocese of Reno covers all of northern Nevada — roughly 71,000 square miles — and serves about 80,000 Catholics across 28 parishes, out of a total regional population of more than 700,000.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. This article was written with the assistance of AI.
