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Anti-abortion politicians, said one campaigner, "know Nebraskans want to end the harmful abortion ban and stop government overreach in their personal and private healthcare decisions."
A ruling by the Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday sets the stage for two separate abortion rights initiatives being on the state ballot this November.
The court ruled that two competing questions focused on abortion care can appear on voters' ballots: one that would enshrine the state's current 12-week ban and another that would affirm Nebraskans have the right to obtain abortion care until "fetal viability," around 24 weeks.
Campaigns for each of the ballot initiatives gathered more than 200,000 signatures in favor of the questions remaining on the ballot.
The Supreme Court decided that a constitutional amendment proposed by the reproductive rights group Protect Our Rights, allowing "all persons the fundamental right to an abortion without interference from the state" until fetal viability, did not violate the state's single-subject rule.
"The first right in our state constitution is for the people to engage in initiatives."
Opponents of the measure had claimed the wording was too vague and that it should not be permitted on ballots because it addressed abortion rights before and after viability as well as how the state should regulate abortion care.
The court said the question "has a singleness of subject" and noted that its ruling aligns with a decision made by the Florida Supreme Court this year.
Lawsuits were brought by an Omaha resident and an neonatologist, both of whom oppose abortion rights.
The state's 12-week abortion ban was passed by the Nebraska Legislature in 2023.
A recent poll by Pew Research found that 50% of adults in Nebraska believe abortion care should be legal in all or most cases, while 46% said it should be illegal.
State Sen. Megan Hunt (I-8) said she was "eager to see the outcome in November, when we will protect the right to abortion in Nebraska."
"All power to the people," said Hunt. "The first right in our state constitution is for the people to engage in initiatives."
Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights, told the Associated Press that "anti-abortion politicians forced an abortion ban into law and then coordinated with activists to launch desperate lawsuits to silence over 200,000 Nebraskans by preventing them from voting on what happens to their bodies."
"They know Nebraskans want to end the harmful abortion ban and stop government overreach in their personal and private healthcare decisions," said Berry. "Today, their plans failed."
"Anti-abortion opponents are trying everything to keep abortion rights questions away from voters—but their dirty tricks keep failing," said one campaigner.
Reproductive freedom defenders on Tuesday cheered the Missouri Supreme Court's restoration of an abortion rights referendum—one of numerous 2024 ballot initiatives seeking to codify access to the healthcare procedure in states from coast to coast.
Missouri's highest court overturned Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh's ruling removing Amendment 3—also known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative—from the November 5 ballot. Limbaugh ordered Republican Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who decertified the measure on Monday, to place it back on the ballot.
“The majority of Missourians want politicians out of their exam rooms, and today's decision by the Missouri Supreme Court keeps those politicians out of the voting booth as well," Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action vice president of external affairs Margot Riphagen
said on social media. "On November 5, Missouri voters will declare their right to reproductive freedom, ensuring decisions about our bodies and our healthcare—including abortion—stay between us, our families, and our providers."
Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project—which provides funding and technical assistance to abortion rights campaigns in Missouri, Arizona, Montana, and Florida—said in a statement that "anti-abortion opponents are trying everything to keep abortion rights questions away from voters—but their dirty tricks keep failing. They know that when voters have a say, reproductive freedom is upheld time and time again."
Chris Hatfield, a lawyer representing abortion rights groups in the case, told The New York Times: "This is a big deal. The court will send a message today about whether, in our little corner of the democracy, the government will honor the will of the people, or will have it snatched away."
Missouri has one of the nation's most draconian abortion bans, with the procedure
prohibited in almost all circumstances "except in cases of medical emergency." The ban—which dates to 2019—took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The Midwestern state joins
at least seven others in which abortion will be on the ballot this November. Every abortion rights ballot measure since the overturn of Roe has passed.
In neighboring Nebraska, the state Supreme Court on Monday
heard arguments in three lawsuits filed by activists trying to keep multiple abortion rights referenda off the ballot.
"It only took literally everyone in the entire state telling him that he was being a monster," said one political scientist, "for him to do the absolute easiest thing and feed hungry kids."
As the deadline rapidly approached for state governments to accept federal funds for summer food assistance for children, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced Monday that conversations with students from around the state had convinced him to take the funding—leaving just 14 Republican-led states still refusing the aid.
At a news conference, the GOP governor—who previously said he didn't "believe in welfare" and would be forgoing $18 million for the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (Summer EBT) program—said he had changed his mind after "an evolution of information" about how young people across Nebraska would be affected by his decision.
Pillen said he spoke to students at a youth legislative day at the state Capitol earlier this month and during a visit to a school in Boys Town, Nebraska.
"They talked about being hungry, and they talked about the summer USDA program and, depending upon access, when they'd get a sack of food," Pillen said Monday. "And from my seat, what I saw there, we have to do better in Nebraska."
The funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will provide the families of an estimated 150,000 children across the state with pre-loaded EBT cards that they'll be able to use for groceries, with $40 to spend per summer month. The children who qualify for the program are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches during the school year and other assistance programs such as Medicaid.
Lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature had been pressuring Pillen to accept the funding, with state Sen. Jen Day, a registered Democrat, introducing a bill that would have forced the state to participate in the Summer EBT program. Her legislation had the support of state Sen. Ray Aguilar, who is registered as a Republican, but was stalled in the Senate after a hearing last week.
Day called Pillen's reversal a "HUGE win for Nebraska kids, families, and local [agriculture] producers and small businesses."
"I want to thank the governor for heeding the call of myself, my colleagues, and countless Nebraskans who asked the governor to rethink his decision," Day said.
The deadline for states to accept the Summer EBT funding was originally January 1, but was extended to this Thursday.
Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wyoming—all led by Republican governors—were still planning to forgo the funding as of Tuesday, despite outcry from anti-poverty groups, pediatricians, and Democratic lawmakers.
Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt applauded the young residents who pushed Pillen to take the funding, saying it showed that "all voices make a positive difference."
"This would not be possible without the tremendous amount of outreach and pressure the public put on our elected officials to do the right thing," said Eric Savaiano, economic justice program manager for Nebraska Appleseed.
Ari Kohen, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was careful not to heap much praise onto Pillen for agreeing to feed low-income children in the state, calling the governor "Nebraska's own Ebenezer Scrooge."
"It only took literally everyone in the entire state telling him that he was being a monster—and probably being haunted by some ghosts—for him to do the absolute easiest thing and feed hungry kids with someone else's money," said Kohen.