LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature’s controversial combination of a stricter abortion ban with a bill restricting gender-affirming care for minors is the target of a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Lancaster County Court by ACLU Nebraska and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The lawsuit argues that the Legislature, by combining sections of two bills involving different […]
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LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature’s controversial combination of a stricter abortion ban with a bill restricting gender-affirming care for minors is the target of a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Lancaster County Court by ACLU Nebraska and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The lawsuit argues that the Legislature, by combining sections of two bills involving different […]
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LINCOLN — Conservatives ruled at the State Capitol like never before in 2023, passing several right-wing measures, including proposals on gun rights and school choice that had been perennial losers in the Legislature, as well as new restrictions on abortion and transgender rights. And, it appears that an 11th-hour push will be successful to achieve […]
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With just a few days left in the 108th session of the Nebraska Legislature, those keeping score in the culture wars can start doling out the spoils. The best this space can gather is that culture war victories in legislatures — aside from some self-satisfaction and I imagine a little gloating — amount to very […]
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LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Monday signed into law new restrictions on abortion and gender-affirming care for minors, which opponents vowed to fight until the very end. Legislative Bill 574, proposed by State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, passed 33-15 last Friday on the final round of debate. The measure includes an approximate 10-week […]
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LINCOLN — Pleas, chants and tossed tampons and pads did not stop the Nebraska Legislature’s conservative majority from passing a bill Friday combining two proposals that several state senators said might not have been able to pass on their own. Hundreds spent the day rallying at the Capitol for abortion rights and trans rights. They […]
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In my medical career, I’ve never experienced anything like what I witnessed and heard in the Nebraska legislative chamber Tuesday, May 16. I was embarrassed and ashamed. For the first time in my life, I felt ashamed of the state I love and call home. I now fear one of my daughters will have a […]
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LINCOLN — An expected final vote Friday on the Nebraska Legislature’s efforts to further restrict abortions and limit gender-affirming care for minors may not be the last after a new amendment was filed Thursday. However, key senators said they would not support the changes proposed. State Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont filed an amendment to […]
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WASHINGTON — Republicans at a U.S. House hearing aired frustration with the Department of Justice this week for what they contended is a lack of enforcement of a Clinton-era law that protects access to reproductive health care at anti-abortion pregnancy centers and abortion clinics. GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee expressed anger the FBI […]
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LINCOLN — With thousands of Nebraskans watching, including hundreds in person, state lawmakers shoehorned a stricter abortion ban into an already divisive bill to limit gender-affirming care for minors. The proposal is now one step from passage. Tuesday’s action was the culmination of months of public outcry and legislative fights over the two measures, both […]
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LINCOLN — The session-long fight in some Nebraska lawmakers’ efforts to further restrict abortion and gender-affirming care for minors could be decided Tuesday evening with a decisive amendment to pair the measures as one proposal. State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair unveiled the amendment last Monday to marry two of the most divisive issues this session […]
The post A guide to Tuesday’s debate on amendment to combine gender-affirming care, abortion restrictions appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
LINCOLN — Last month, State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston was the reason the Nebraska Legislature fell a single vote short of outlawing abortions after an ultrasound detects embryonic cardiac activity, typically at about six weeks’ gestation. But Riepe’s new deal with his conservative colleagues, which contains a stricter ban than he proposed, could spur […]
The post Proposed 12-week abortion cutoff hits sooner than Riepe’s, with no exception for fetal anomalies appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
LINCOLN — A blockbuster pairing of two controversial bills in the waning days of the 2023 state legislative session has state senators and advocates buzzing. But could a state constitutional requirement that bills contain only a “single subject” later trip up the merging of a 12-week ban on abortions into a proposal to ban minors […]
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LINCOLN — The latest fight over gender-affirming care in Nebraska has shifted, at least slightly, from whether there should be restrictions to who should have the final authority in drafting them. A new amendment would combine two of the most controversial topics this legislative session — abortion and gender-affirming care — into Legislative Bill 574, the […]
The post Final say on Nebraska gender care bill would be delegated to executive branch appointee and DHHS appeared first on Nebraska Examiner.
Jennifer Adkins’ first pregnancy was near-perfect. She sailed through her appointments and screenings with no complications, ticking every box and making lists of all the right questions to ask her medical professionals. By the time her unmedicated labor was over and the nurses placed her newborn son on her chest, Adkins felt like a superhero. […]
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LINCOLN — Foes of abortion rights are hoping to resurrect a debate on the issue in the waning days of the 2023 session by pairing it with another controversial proposal. On Monday afternoon, an abortion-related amendment to the bill that would ban gender-affirming procedures for minors was unveiled. The amendment would provide for a 12-week […]
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LINCOLN — The costliest mayor’s race in Lincoln history may have motivated record turnout for a Capital City election, but all that campaign spending and outside advertising barely budged the result from four years ago. With all but about 700 provisional ballots counted, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, Nebraska’s top elected Democrat, increased her lead and […]
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LINCOLN — Months of TV, digital and snail-mail advertisements painting the Capital City as some kind of criminal wasteland, and waves of billboards backing change in city leadership, weren’t enough to help Republicans boot Nebraska’s top elected Democrat from office. Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, a Democrat, won re-election Tuesday over former State Sen. Suzanne […]
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Alex D. turned 23 on the day the U.S. Supreme Court released the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. She was on vacation in Nebraska, visiting Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, riding the chairlift over the rhino exhibit, when she saw the news alert on her phone. She was also eight weeks pregnant and […]
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LINCOLN — One day after State Sen. Merv Riepe refused to vote for a six-week, “heartbeat” abortion bill, the Ralston senator said he’s not reconsidering that decision. Riepe said Friday that he had met with Gov. Jim Pillen after the vote. The governor had urged him to reconsider, but the senator said he remains supportive […]
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LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature fell one vote short Thursday of passing a ban on abortions after an ultrasound detects embryonic cardiac activity, at about six weeks into a pregnancy. Republican State Sen. Joni Albrecht’s Legislative Bill 626, fell in a similar fashion as the near-total abortion ban proposed last year. Both lost to Democratic-led […]
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats at a Wednesday hearing explored how nearly a year after the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion, multiple states and conservative-backed lawsuits are restricting access to reproductive care. The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said the recent Texas lawsuit challenging […]
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LINCOLN — The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce issued a statement Wednesday saying that in the interest of “diversity, equity and inclusion,” the Nebraska Legislature should steer clear of bills that “threaten Nebraska as the warm and welcoming state we know it to be.” “Inclusivity is the right thing to do,” says the statement from […]
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LINCOLN — Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers released a legal opinion Tuesday disputing two top concerns about a proposed abortion ban tied to the ultrasound detection of embryonic cardiac activity. The Legislature is expected to begin a pivotal second round of debate over State Sen. Joni Albrecht’s Legislative Bill 626 on Thursday. Hilgers and Solicitor […]
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Somewhere among Bible quotes and men lecturing on women’s bodies came this: “Our state population has not grown except by those foreigners who have moved here or refugees who have been placed here. Why is that? It’s because we’ve killed 200,000 people. These are people we’ve killed. [They] could be working and filling some of […]
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These days Kylee Sunderlin is often the first person people will talk to about needing or wanting to terminate a pregnancy, even though she’s not a nurse or doctor or a loved one. She’s a lawyer. This is Sunderlin’s third year overseeing a national hotline dedicated to helping people navigate legal questions around abortion in […]
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OMAHA — U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., with help from House Republican leadership and national GOP donors, set a financial marker this spring to tell potential challengers that the cost of running against the four-term incumbent is going up. Bacon’s campaign raised $483,000 in the first quarter of 2023. His federal political committee to elect […]
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LINCOLN — Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird told more than 200 people at a candidate forum Thursday that her opponent, former State Sen. Suzanne Geist, is bad for business, while Geist described Lincoln under Gaylor Baird’s watch as a harder place to do business than it should be. Gaylor Baird said Geist’s legislative record could cost […]
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An appeals court in New Orleans late Wednesday partly blocked a judge’s order that would have overturned federal approval of the abortion pill — which means the pill remains available across the nation for now. But the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals also let part of the Texas judge’s order stand. The effect of the […]
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LINCOLN — Nebraska anti-abortion advocates celebrated clearing a major legislative hurdle Wednesday in a decades-long effort to curb what they call “elective abortions,” or abortions by choice. Every Republican in the Legislature and one Democrat, State Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha, provided the 33 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Lawmakers gave first-round passage to […]
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