Peed family donates $1 million to petition drive trying to protect Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban

Two members of the Peed family – the family behind Sandhills Global, Piedmontese Beef and the Casa Bovina restaurant in Lincoln – are putting money behind an effort to enshrine Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution.

Thomas and Shawn Peed together donated $1 million to the Protect Women & Children Initiative, a group that’s collecting signatures to keep restrictions on abortion rights through a ballot initiative in November.

That’s according to documents filed with Nebraska’s Accountability and Disclosure Commission. The Peed’s donations join a previously-reported $500,000 contribution from Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts. Gov. Jim Pillen’s campaign also gave $645 in food and beverage for an in-kind contribution, according to the documents.

Protect Women & Children reported it had about $1,092,000 in cash and cash equivalents at the close of the last NADC reporting period. During that period, the documents show the campaign paid a Kansas City-based consulting firm just over $400,000 for “field strategy and staffing.”

The Peed donations could help organizers collect the signatures they need to get the ban in front of voters on the November ballot. They have until July 3 to collect just under 123,000 signatures from 10% of the state’s registered voters.

Nebraska Public Media has not heard back from requests for comment made to representatives with Protect Women and Children or to the Peed Family Foundation.

Meanwhile, abortion rights organizations are collecting signatures for their own ballot initiative. That campaign is aiming to guarantee abortion rights until fetal viability – usually around 24 weeks – in the state constitution.

If both petitions make the November ballot and are approved by voters, Nebraska statute dictates that whichever measure receives the most votes will be adopted in the state's constitution.