Nebraska Will Have Competing Abortion Measures On November Ballot, Court Rules

Two abortion-related ballot measures will appear in front of Nebraska voters in November.

The state Supreme Court ruled on Friday morning that Nebraskans will be able to cast votes on both measures, one in favor of abortion rights and one against. The abortion rights ballot measure asks voters if they would like to enshrine abortion access until fetal viability, or somewhere around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, into the state constitution. The measure opposed to abortion rights seeks to codify the state’s current 12-week abortion ban.

The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three lawsuits pertaining to one or both amendments earlier this week. A conservative Christian law firm brought two lawsuits against the pro-choice measure, on behalf of two local anti-abortion advocates. The law firm, which recently lost a similar argument against a Missouri pro-choice measure, claimed that the abortion-rights measure violated state law requiring amendments to only address a single subject. They claimed that “reproductive freedom” encompasses more than one issue ― an argument that anti-abortion advocates also used against Florida’s abortion-rights ballot measure.

The third lawsuit, filed by nearly 30 pro-choice physicians, argued that if one measure is allowed on the ballot then both should be allowed.

This is the first time competing abortion measures will be on a state ballot since the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The state Supreme Court decision was handed down just hours before the deadline to take an amendment off the Nebraska ballot.

Abortion-rights amendments have been extremely successful in both red and blue states since the fall of Roe. When Americans get to vote directly on abortion, they overwhelmingly vote pro-choice. A recent poll shows that the anti-abortion measure has more support than the abortion-rights measure, but not by much.