Unicameral advances bill requiring cremation or burial of remains from elective abortions

A proposal to change how the remains from elective abortions are disposed of is moving forward in the Nebraska Legislature after two days of debate.

Sen. Ben Hansen’s LB632, which would require abortion remains to be buried or cremated, advanced on a 34-11 vote Tuesday morning.

Currently, Nebraska hospitals are required to bury or cremate fetal remains after spontaneous abortions, miscarriages or stillbirths.

But that doesn’t apply to elective abortions, which are typically done at abortion clinics, not hospitals. Those clinics are subject to medical waste disposal guidance from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy.

Hansen said the type of abortion should not determine the dignity with which the remains are treated.

“These are human bodies, and as such, they deserve to be treated with some measure of human respect,” he said. “All of us understand the need and desire to treat dead bodies, including the bodies of miscarriages, stillborn children, with dignity.”

Sen. Dan Lonowski, who made the bill his personal priority for the session, cited several examples from across the country of aborted remains being discarded improperly.

“Recent discoveries of aborted baby remains being bought and sold for experimentation in laboratories, grafted onto mice and held in jars of souvenirs, have provided additional insight into the abortion industry's high disregard for human dignity,” he said.

Lonowski, along with other proponents of the bill, said the legislation doesn't limit the right to abortion.

But critics said it's a “backdoor attempt” to ban the practice in Nebraska.

Sen. Ashlei Spivey, who led the bill’s filibuster effort, said the cost of cremations – typically between $895 and $1,300 - would place a large financial burden on abortion providers and may force them to close.

She said the bill is also insulting to abortion patients, who would have no say on how abortion clinics dispose of their remains.

“LB632 disrespects patients by essentially imposing a funeral requirement for abortion,” she said. “The bill imposes a religious or spiritual view on a patient regardless of how they feel or what they believe.”

Other senators brought up concerns over the vague language of the half-page bill. Sen. Jane Raybould shared the questions she believed are not well defined in the legislation.

“Does LB632 apply to physicians’ offices? Does this bill apply to hospitals? Does the term ‘facility’ have different meanings when referencing hospitals, physicians' offices, clinics, health care facilities, etc.? Does this pertain only to elective abortions? Does this mean surgical and medication-induced abortions? Why is an elective abortion not defined in the bill?” she asked.

Similar laws have been passed in other states from across the political spectrum, and they have been met with a mix of rulings on constitutionality in court.

Hansen said he modeled his bill on a Minnesota law that has been in place since 1987.

An Ohio law on the disposal of fetal remains, passed in 2020, was recently blocked by a county judge. In Indiana, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated that state’s law after an earlier ruling that it couldn’t be enforced.

The U.S. Supreme Court then refused to take up a case on the Indiana law, leaving it in place.

Monday afternoon, it appeared that LB632 supporters, which include all 33 Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Unicameral based on Tuesday’s vote, would not have enough votes to advance.

Republican Sens. Brian Hardin and Rita Sanders were not in the chamber, and their votes would likely be needed to invoke cloture, ending debate and keeping the bill from being indefinitely postponed.

That led Hansen to request to adjourn the body just before 5:30 p.m., with around 15 minutes left of the allotted four hours of debate on the measure.

Despite a request to vote no from Republican Speaker John Arch, senators voted 25-14 to adjourn.

That set the stage for the Tuesday morning vote from the full body, where all 33 Republicans voted to end debate and advance the bill.

Sen. Victor Rountree, the lone Democrat to vote for the bill, said he pushed the green aye button by mistake.

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