Abortion In Nebraska

Abortion in Nebraska is legal. 50% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

The number of abortion clinics in Nebraska has fluctuated over the years, with eight in 1982, nine in 1992 and three in 2014.  There were 2,270 legal abortions in 2014, and 2,004 in 2015.

Terminology

The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.

Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".

Context

Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having a fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link.  At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening.

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health.  These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools. According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states have legislation seeking to protect a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States.

Poor women in the United States had problems paying for menstrual pads and tampons in 2018 and 2019. Almost two-thirds of American women could not pay for them. These were not available through the federal Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC). Lack of menstrual supplies has an economic impact on poor women.  A study in St. Louis found that 36% had to miss days of work because they lacked adequate menstrual hygiene supplies during their period.  This was on top of the fact that many had other menstrual issues including bleeding, cramps and other menstrual induced health issues. This state was one of a majority that taxed essential hygiene products like tampons and menstrual pads as of November 2018.

History

Legislative history

The state passed a law in the 2000s banning abortions before 22 weeks because they alleged that fetus can feel pain. The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement. Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota and Ohio all had statues in 2007 that required specific informed consent on abortion but also, by statue, allowed medical doctors performing abortions to disassociate themselves with the anti-abortion materials they were required to provide to their female patients.

In 2013, state Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to medication induced abortions and private doctor offices in addition to abortion clinics. Nebraska and North Carolina had laws prohibiting abortions after 20-weeks by 2018. This law had changed to be after week 22 by mid-May 2019.

Judicial history

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester. Stenberg v. Carhart  was before the US Supreme Court in June 2000. The ruling meant the state's  "partial-birth abortion" was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court as it did not consider the life of the mother.  29 other states were impacted by this ruling. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska physician who specialized in late-term abortions, brought suit against Don Stenberg, the Attorney General of Nebraska, seeking declaratory judgment that a state law banning certain forms of abortion was unconstitutional, based on the undue burden test mentioned by a dissenting opinion in Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health and by the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Both a federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Carhart before the case was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Nebraska statute prohibited "partial birth abortion", which it defined as any abortion in which the physician "partially delivers vaginally a living unborn child before killing the unborn child and completing the delivery."

Clinic history

Number of abortion clinics in Nebraska by year.

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state increased by one, going from eight in 1982 to nine in 1992. In 2014, there were three abortion clinics in the state. That year, 97% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 41% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. In 2017, there were two Planned Parenthood clinics in a state with a population of 420,419 women aged 15 – 49 of which two offered abortion services.

Statistics

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there was only 0 recorded illegal abortion death in the state. In 1990, 175,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2014, 50% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Abortion rights views and activities

Protests

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019. At a protest at the Nebraska Capitol in Lincoln, more than 350 people participated. Former state Sen. Brenda Council was among those taking part.

Anti-abortion views and activities

Activities

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz excommunicated Catholics in his jurisdiction who were associated with Catholics for Choice in 1996, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated in 2000 that "[CFC] is not a Catholic organization, does not speak for the Catholic Church, and in fact promotes positions contrary to the teaching of the Church as articulated by the Holy See and the USCCB." He also excommunicated Catholics affiliated with the Society of Saint Pius X and its St. Michael the Archangel Chapel for "fraudulently advertising themselves in Lincoln as 'in full union with Rome,' causing confusion, ambiguity, and uncertainty on the part of many of the faithful in Lincoln..." He also excommunicated Catholics affiliated with Freemasonry and its affiliate organizations (Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls), for beliefs and practices that the Vatican considers incompatible with Catholicism.

In 2004, Bruskewitz stated that he would deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, including 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry.

Violence

In 1977, there were four arson attacks on abortion clinics.  These took place in Minnesota, Vermont, Nebraska and Ohio.  Combined, they caused over US$1.1 million in damage.

Footnotes