![]() Megan Hunt of Omaha, in a recent interview about the likelihood of new efforts to increase restrictions, warned about the risks of “extreme abortion bans across the country.” 9, 2022, calling for an all-out effort to retain abortion rights. Megan Hunt of Omaha, a leading advocate for abortion rights, speaks at a post-election rally Nov. “They are doing everything they can to keep people from accessing health care.” Opponents to fight new restrictionsĪbortion-rights advocates have pledged to filibuster any efforts to further restrict, limit or ban a procedure they describe as a private decision between a woman and her doctor. “I think the bottom line, however they’re trying to sugarcoat it, this is an abortion ban, plain and simple,” she said. Albrecht said she decided on six because that was as much as she and others thought could pass.Īndi Curry Grubb, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Nebraska, said the proposed legislation would effectively outlaw abortions because most people wouldn’t know they were pregnant before too many weeks had passed. Many political observers expected Nebraska to follow other conservative states that have reduced legal abortions from 20 weeks to 15 or 12. “I know that in Nebraska, after bringing the trigger bill that we did, I knew that I had to be open-minded to some movement,” Albrecht said. All three anti-abortion groups support Albrecht’s bill. ![]() Polling done for Nebraska Right to Life, the Nebraska Family Alliance and the Nebraska Catholic Conference indicated majority support for restricting abortion after a heartbeat is heard. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, the bill’s sponsor, said this week that she would have preferred proposing a full ban with fewer exceptions, like the bill that fell two votes short of passage last year.īut she and other supporters of additional abortion restrictions acknowledged the political reality of recent polling that indicated a majority of Nebraskans favor neither extreme on abortion.ĪCLU Nebraska has released recent polling that indicates a majority of Nebraskans want no additional restrictions on abortion. ![]() Organizers say they believe they have the support necessary for passage. More than 25 state senators attended a press conference at midday Wednesday announcing the bill. It spells out protections for in vitro fertilization and procedures after miscarriages. The Nebraska draft contains exceptions for rape, incest and medical threats to a mother’s life. Supporters of new restrictions say the language is modeled after what anti-abortion advocates call “heartbeat bills” passed in Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio and Georgia, to name some.Įarlier this month, South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled that a law with similar exceptions to the Nebraska proposal was a breach of privacy rights under the state constitution. The bill would rely on the existing medical licensing structure at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to enforce the law, including review by a panel of medical peers. How the bill would workĭoctors, however, would lose their medical licenses if they performed an abortion after an ultrasound finds a “heartbeat” or if they performed an abortion without the required ultrasound. The new proposal would not criminalize patients seeking abortions or doctors performing them, based on draft language obtained by the Nebraska Examiner and verified by the bill sponsor. The bill, expected this week, would ban abortions after an ultrasound can detect a “fetal heartbeat.” The bill specifies this as “steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac.” Reporters listen at the Capitol Rotunda to a new proposal to restrict abortions to about six weeks after gestation. LINCOLN - Nebraskans would have about six weeks, and in many practical instances less, to decide on ending a pregnancy, instead of the current 20 weeks, under legislation anti-abortion senators plan to propose this session.
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