Nebraska Supreme Court upholds 12-week abortion ban
Attention now turns to two ballot measures that would put the abortion question before Nebraska voters in the Nov. 5 election.
After the Nebraska Supreme Court on July 26 upheld a state law that bans most abortions after 12 weeks, attention now turns to two ballot initiatives that would put the abortion question before voters in the Nov. 5 election.
The high court ruled that Nebraska lawmakers did not violate the state Constitution by passing a law last year that dealt with multiple unrelated subjects. The issue of abortion was rolled into a measure banning gender-affirming care for minors; critics said those were two distinct subjects and therefore the measure was unconstitutional.
The issue was rolled into the bill on gender-affirming care as time ran short in the 2023 legislative session and lawmakers had failed to pass a six-week abortion ban.
The court ruled the law including the 12-week abortion ban was constitutional because it dealt broadly with medical care.
“Ultimately, if a bill has but one general object, no matter how broad that object may be … and the title fairly expresses the subject of the bill, it does not violate” the Constitution, wrote Chief Justice Michael Heavican.
“This case will not be the final word on abortion access and the rights of trans youth and their families in Nebraska,” Mindy Rush Chipman, the executive director of the ACLU of Nebraska, said in a statement. “Despite this loss, we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that Nebraskans can make their own private decisions about their lives, families and futures.”
Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed a law in May 2023 banning abortion in most cases after 12 weeks. The move came after the U.S. Supreme Court, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, returning to each state the power to regulate abortion.
Since then, state-level organizers across the country both opposing and supporting abortion have been working furiously on ballot measures to either enshrine abortion rights in state law or ban the procedure.
The ACLU of Nebraska is part of a coalition called Protect Our Rights that has submitted a petition measure that would guarantee the right to have an abortion “until fetal viability … or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.” Fetal viability is generally considered to be at around 23 to 24 weeks of gestation, or about six months.The coalition also includes the Women’s Fund of Omaha, Nebraska Appleseed, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska, and the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table.
A competing measure called Protect Women and Children would amend the state Constitution to prohibit abortions after 12 weeks of gestation “except when a woman seeks an abortion necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest.” The coalition promoting the measure includes the Catholic Conference, Nebraska Right to Life, and the Nebraska Family Alliance. The measure also is supported by Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts.
Petitions to put the measures on the ballot need signatures from at least 10% of registered Nebraska voters, or about 123,000 voters. The signatures must come from at least 5% of registered Nebraska voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.
The organizers of each petition submitted more than 200,000 signatures. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s office is now in the process of verifying the signatures.
