Nebraska’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that competing abortion rights measures can be on the ballot in November, allowing voters to choose between expanding the right to abortion or codifying a 12-week ban into the state constitution.
The former would enshrine “a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient” in Nebraska’s constitution. The other would ban abortions after the first trimester with exceptions for a medical emergency, rape or incest — essentially codifying the state’s current abortion ban into its constitution.
Anti-abortion supporters sued over the abortion rights initiative, arguing that it violated a state rule that requires a ballot proposal to address only one subject. The state’s high court ultimately ruled that measure does not violate the single-subject rule, thus allowing both measures to appear alongside each other on the ballot.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, voters have resoundingly sided with abortion rights in states when the issue has been on the ballot. This year, at least 10 states, including Nebraska, are slated to vote on abortion rights measures. In response, Republican officials in those states have resorted to a slew of tactics to undermine those initiatives ahead of the election. Nebraska is the only state since the fall of Roe to put opposing abortion measures together on the ballot. It’s unclear which way voters are leaning: Organizers for both initiatives said last month that they had each submitted a roughly similar number of signatures to get ballot access. In the event that voters approve both measures, the one that gets the most votes in favor will be the one that’s enshrined in the state constitution, The Associated Press reported.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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