A radical amendment that threatens to ram unpopular abortion until birth into the Cornhusker State constitution will make the ballot in November despite its deceptive nature, the Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Friday.
Abortion in Nebraska is prohibited beyond 12 weeks gestation. The “Protect the Right to Abortion” ballot initiative, funded by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, however, seeks to enshrine abortion at any point in pregnancy in the state’s constitution.
The proposed amendment leaves vague, undefined terms like “viability” up to the subjective judgment of a health care practitioner, not necessarily a doctor. As the Thomas More Society lawyers who argued the case noted, the measure could “effectively … abolish nearly 50 years of legislative enactments,” like the state’s dismemberment ban and parental consent requirement, and prevent state legislators from enacting pro-life protections in the future.
A majority of Nebraskans, 72 percent, say they oppose legalizing abortion through birth. The lawsuit heard by the high bench, however, alleged that the ballot measure’s language could mislead voters with strong feelings about unlimited abortion to vote against their convictions.
The lawsuit also asked Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen to withhold the proposed amendment from the ballot because it “is legally insufficient” and violates the Nebraska Constitution’s Single Subject Rule mandating “[i]nitiative measures shall contain only one subject.”
“The proposed initiative contains several subjects, which are not natural and necessary to each other, and which will confuse voters and create doubt after the election,” a brief filed by
