Abortion opponents pursue ban early in pregnancy

Jan. 11, 2023, 4:10 p.m. ·

Flanked by abortion opponents, Sen. Joni Albrecht speaks at the Capitol Wednesday (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News)
Flanked by abortion opponents, Sen. Joni Albrecht speaks at the Capitol Wednesday (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News)

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Abortion opponents say they’ll ask the Legislature to ban the procedure after six weeks into pregnancy. Abortion rights supporters say the proposal is extreme, and they’ll use every tool to fight it.

Flanked by more than two dozen of her colleagues in the echoey Capitol rotunda, Sen. Joni Albrecht outlined the legislation she’ll introduce in the coming days.

“Under the Nebraska heartbeat act, before performing an abortion, a physician must perform an ultrasound to listen for a fetal heartbeat. If the heartbeat is detected, performing an abortion is unlawful except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of a mother,” Albrecht said.

Supporters of the legislation say a heartbeat can be detected at about 6 weeks gestational age, or after a woman’s last menstrual period. Abortion rights advocates say the term “heartbeat’ is misleading, because you can detect electrical activity at six weeks, but there’s no functioning heart.

Albrecht also said she would introduce legislation to provide up to $10 million in tax credits to people who contribute to organizations that help pregnant women. Toni Clarke, executive director of Assure Women’s Health Center in Omaha, said her organization does much more than help only women.

“Families who need material support find it at pregnancy help organizations. From cribs to diapers, we are there to provide the items that a baby needs. We provide baby showers for those who need it. We help find housing, and sometimes even cars. We also equip moms and dads to be better parents through our parenting classes,” Clarke said.

Albrecht proposed legislation last year that would have banned all abortions, but that effort failed. She said allowing for exceptions in this year’s proposal should help the measure succeed.

“We want the bill to pass, of course. And if those were our hurdles that we needed to consider, those are what we needed to do. But we have 85% of the babies (who) will be saved with this six week ban,” she said.

Actually, according to the most recent Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, about 65 percent of abortions occurred after 6 weeks of gestation. Abrecht’s office said a heartbeat can be detected between 5 and 6 weeks, so their figures excluded procedures that occurred after 5 weeks.

Sen. Megan Hunt, an abortion rights supporter, said a six week ban would hurt women.

“A six week abortion ban is an abortion ban. It effectively bans abortion for everybody, because a lot of people don't even know they're pregnant until after six weeks. And we know that this is going to fall disproportionately on people of color, on low income Nebraskans, and on Nebraskans who are already struggling to make ends meet,” Hunt said.

And Sen. Danielle Conrad, another abortion rights supporter, said Nebraskans need to fight the proposal.

“No matter how its messaged, no matter what misleading political rhetoric is utilized, this is an extreme abortion ban. And Nebraskans need to get engaged. They need to get up to speed on the issues. They need to connect with their state senators. They need to speak out online. They need to speak out in their communities, and they need to say ‘no,’” Conrad said.

Both sides of the debate expressed confidence they’ll prevail, with Albrecht predicting she’ll get the votes to overcome opponents’ filibuster, and Hunt saying she expects enough senators will oppose the proposal to keep it from passing.

For her part, Hunt introduced two proposed amendments that would enshrine abortion rights in the Nebraska Constitution. She said it’s important to put it on the ballot “to give Nebraskans the choice and the chance to say ‘In Nebraska we stand up for reproductive rights. We don't come between a patient and their doctor on this important issue.’ And we need to give Nebraskans the opportunity the ballot to say that,” Hunt said.

Both the legislation and the proposed constitutional amendment will be the subject of public hearings in the weeks ahead.