Abortion in Nebraska

It includes exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergency, but allows the legislature to enact restrictions within the first trimester such as the current 12-week ban.

[1] A November 2022 Hart Research poll found that 59% of Nebraskans opposed further abortion restrictions, with 48% strongly opposed, while only 36% supported additional bans, revealing increased support for abortion rights across both rural and urban areas and all congressional districts compared to earlier polling.

[3] The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 51% of Nebraskans said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

If enacted, the trigger law would have outlawed abortion from conception with no exceptions should the US Supreme Court undo the Roe v. Wade decision, and only an affirmative defense in case of medical emergency.

[12] The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.

"[14] LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska physician who specialized in late-term abortions, brought suit against Don Stenberg, the Attorney General of Nebraska, seeking declaratory judgment that the law was unconstitutional, based on the undue burden test mentioned by a dissenting opinion in City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health[15] and by the Court in Planned Parenthood v.

[27] out-of-state residents Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.

[31] Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, hundreds of abortion rights protesters rallied in Memorial Park in Omaha, Nebraska.

"[36] At the same time, the president of the organization, Sandy Danek, has said that women who obtain abortions are themselves victims, stating, "We do not support any measures seeking to criminalize or punish a woman.

"[40] In 2004, Bruskewitz stated that he would deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support abortion, including 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.

[43] On August 29, 2009, two days after a nearby anti-abortion protest, an unknown arsonist threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood in Lincoln, Nebraska.

"[46] The city of Blue Hill, Nebraska, followed suit and enacted a similar ordinance outlawing abortion on April 13, 2021.

[48] On November 8, 2022, citizens in five villages in Western Nebraska (Arnold, Paxton, Brady, Hershey, and Wallace) saw local abortion bans pass in each one of their communities.

[52] The measure, if passed, "would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution up until fetal viability, or about the 24th week of pregnancy.

"Currently, abortion is illegal in Nebraska after the 12th week of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and saving the mother’s life.

[52] Another effort led by "the Nebraska Catholic Conference and Nebraska Right to Life, seeks to put to voters a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban abortion after the first trimester except in situations where the abortion is “necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest.” This measure turned in 205,000 signatures.