Abortions provided in Nebraska in 2023 declined 8.7% from 2022, marking a decrease the year the state tightened abortion access from about 20 to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Doctors provided 2,325 abortions in 2023, down from 2,547 in 2022. That’s according to new data from Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services.
About 80% of those abortions were for Nebraska residents. Most patients coming from out of state were from Iowa, where the state supreme court just upheld a six-week ban.
Gov. Jim Pillen praised the decline in a statement, calling it a “tremendous start to ending abortion in Nebraska.”
Adam Schwend with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America attributed the dip to the May 2023 passage of LB574’s Preborn Child Protection Act, which bans most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
“We celebrate the massive drop in late-term abortions, thanks to Nebraska’s pro-life law protecting unborn children after the first trimester,” Schwend said in an email.
The decline in abortions was most acute in June 2023, the month following the bill’s approval. Doctors performed 99 abortions that month, with 194 abortions being the monthly average in 2023.
Abortions in Nebraska fell 23% after LB574’s passage when compared to the same seven-month period in 2022.
The decline wasn’t a surprise to Ruth Richardson. She’s the chief executive officer for Planned Parenthood North Central States, the regional group that includes Nebraska.
“There has been an unrelenting attack on access to abortion care,” she said. “It’s harder for people to get access to care in Nebraska.”
Richardson also pointed out that Planned Parenthood’s Omaha location is now Nebraska’s only provider of surgical abortions in the state. That comes after the Bellevue clinic founded by the late LeRoy Carhart stopped providing the procedure and Planned Parenthood transferred Lincoln’s services to Omaha’s renovated location.
Planned Parenthood is focusing on Nebraska as a priority for expanding access to abortion, according to Richardson.
“It’s about recognizing the needs within the new reality of the patchwork of laws we currently have in the region,” she said. “It’s an answer for the people who are traveling into Nebraska from Iowa, Texas, Missouri or other states.”