Antisemitism, missing Black women and abortion discussed in Legislature

By Fred Knapp , Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media

30 de Enero de 2026 a las 16:00 ·

Sen. Brian Hardin (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News) — Sen. Brian Hardin. (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News)

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Strengthening protections against antisemitism, investigating the problem of missing Black women and children, and preventing women from being forced to have abortions were all discussed in the Legislature Friday.

Sen. Brian Hardin is the sponsor of a bill (LB538) to require that public schools, colleges and universities adopt policies prohibiting religious discrimination, provide training on antisemitism, and report incidents or complaints to the state. Hardin said the proposal meets an increasing need.

“LB538 addresses a growing and deeply troubling concern in schools and universities across the country, the rise of antisemitism and the urgent need to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, feel safe, respected and protected in their pursuit of education,” Hardin said.

Sen. Terrell McKinney (Photo courtesy Nebraska Legislature) — Terrell McKinney

Sen. Terrell McKinney offered an amendment to add anti-black and anti-indigenous discrimination to the bill. McKinney explained his reasoning.

“It's very simple: either we teach these things or we don't, and I don't think we can just single out one sector of our communities and say this should be taught, but when there's bias and hate in these other parts of our community that we don't want to do that,” McKinney said.

No one spoke against McKinney’s amendment, but senators voted 25-15 against adding it. Hardin was later asked why he didn’t support it.

“I think this is a very worthy idea, so worthy that, in fact, it needs to be a bill of its own, not something that comes on to another bill as an amendment that's not been considered or addressed in advance,” he said.

Hardin’s bill incorporates a definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, that says “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” The association says manifestations of antisemitism might include targeting the state of Israel.

Sen. Megan Hunt expressed concern about the definition.

“What I worry about is that, in practice, a student or a faculty member will wonder, ‘If I criticize Israeli government policy in class, will that be reported as discrimination? If I organize a campus protest for Palestinian rights? Could that trigger a Title Six complaint?’ And we see in schools all over the country and colleges like Columbia University that the Trump administration has come down hard on these students and these faculty members and these institutions for criticism of the State of Israel,” she said.

The IHRA does say that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” It also lists as an example of antisemitism “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

Sen. Danielle Conrad said the bill could be amended to change how the definition is used. Senators then voted 42-0 first-round approval of the measure.

Also Friday, senators advanced a proposal (LB751) by Sen. Ashlei Spivey to have the State Patrol study and report on missing Black women and children. Spivey said they go missing out of proportion to their numbers in the population, and she wants to find out why.

“We don't know if they are considered runaways, and that definition has an opportunity to be cleaned up a bit. We are not sure if it's because of domestic violence or sex trafficking, and so this bill really says, ‘Let's look at the data, let's see what's happening, and how do we go upstream with policy to ensure that we are protecting Black women and children that have disproportionate numbers based on the population size across Nebraska?’” Spivey said.

The bill advanced on a vote of 41-0.

And senators began debate on a proposal (LB669) that would require abortion providers to evaluate if women are being coerced into having an abortion and provide them with access to hotlines dealing with domestic violence and human trafficking.

Sen. Tanya Storer, lead sponsor, said her goal is to enhance provisions for informed consent, privacy and safety.

“These simple changes could have lifesaving impacts and be the difference between someone's freedom or continued abuse. Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, we can all agree that no woman in Nebraska should be pressured or forced into an abortion against her will,” Storer said.

Hunt suggested the focus of the bill was misdirected.

“Coercion around abortion is a very, very small piece of a much larger and more complex problem of domestic violence and reproductive coercion. Research shows that while a small percentage of pregnant people report pressure to end a pregnancy, there is … infinitely more pressure to not seek an abortion or to report birth control sabotage or forced pregnancy, these tools of abuse, in other words, reproductive coercion, most often shows up as someone being forced to become or stay pregnant, not forced to end a pregnancy,” Hunt said.

Storer agreed that kind of coercion is a problem, too, and said people are working on an amendment to address it. Debate on the measure is expected to resume Monday.