A political coalition called Protect Our Rights is collecting signatures for a liberal petition… and Nebraska’s governor has described it as part of a strategy to sneak an unpopular amendment into the Nebraska constitution.
Speaking to KETV earlier this month, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen criticized the group’s pro-abortion petition for being “very vague” and “very open.”
In Dobbs last year, the U.S. Supreme Court returned abortion policy to the legislatures, whether state or federal.
However, Democrats have sought to return this issue to the courts by putting constitutional amendments on the ballots in several states. In this way, they can amend the states’ constitutions in order to guarantee abortion.
For example, the Republican-leaning electorate of Ohio approved Issue 1 last year, amending the state constitution to include “the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability.”
Not all states allow ballot initiatives, and some states allow them only for certain issues. However, Nebraska allows them.
Now, Protect Our Rights is trying to replicate the results from Ohio, Protect Our Rights organizer Ashlei Spivey told KETV earlier this month.
“People vote to protect their rights time and time again,” Spivey said.
The petition says —
All persons shall have a fundamental right to abortion 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. Fetal viability means the point in pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the patient’s treating health care practitioner, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.
Some pro-life figures, including the governor, have criticized Nebraska’s petition for allowing individual providers to determine the point of “viability.”
“Its vague and deceptive language could throw open the doors to brutal late-term abortions, putting abortion providers in charge of judging whether, for example, a 39-week-old pre-born baby can be aborted,” the governor said in a statement Wednesday.
More to the point, Gov. Pillen told KETV, “You know, you can take that definition a lot of different ways.”
Pillen also said that Nebraskans have already reached a compromise on abortion.
“That is totally out of step with the pro-life principles of the overwhelming majority of Nebraskans, whose representatives last session passed a strong and reasonable 12-week abortion ban with common sense exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and life of the mother,” Pillen said in his statement. “I was proud to sign that bill into law.”
More generally, some pro-life groups have criticized these pro-abortion initiatives for being pushed by deep-pocketed donors from out of state.
To put their measure on the ballot, Protect Our Rights will need to collect 125,000 signatures by July 3. Plus, they’ll need signatures from at least 5 percent of registered voters in 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. If successful, they’ll see their measure go up for a vote in November 2024.
The Horn editorial team