Nebraska Supreme Court rules dueling abortion ballot measures will go before voters

LINCOLN - Nebraskans will be allowed to vote on two competing ballot initiatives that would expand or limit abortion rights this November, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Friday.

One of the measures sponsored by Protect Our Rights, a coalition of pro-abortion rights, including the local Planned Parenthood affiliate, would establish a "fundamental right" to abortion up to fetal viability, typically 24 weeks, and to protect the mother's life or health after that.

The other initiative, backed by a group of anti-abortion doctors, would ban abortion after the first trimester, with exceptions for medical emergencies, rape or incest - similar to the state's existing 12-week abortion law.

Both challenges argued that the proposed amendments presented multiple issues, since they involved abortion rights under various circumstances, and risked confusing voters. But the state's highest court ruled that both initiatives addressed a single subject and were clear.

“We determine that the Initiative seeks to create a constitutional right to abortion and has a singleness of subject, and we conclude that the Initiative does not violate the single subject rule,” wrote Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman of the court’s decision.

According to Nebraska's Secretary of State Bob Evnen, both campaigns collected record-breaking numbers of signatures for ballot initiatives in the state, over 136,000 of which were valid for each measure. The winning measure must garner at least 35% of the vote this fall. If both measures surpass that threshold, the one that receives the most votes in November will pass.

“All along, we felt confident in our efforts and the process that we followed,” Protect Our Rights campaign manager Allie Berry told USA TODAY. “People are excited and ready to go to the ballot box in November and vote to end our current abortion ban and protect access to abortion in Nebraska.”

"Unregulated late-term abortions are what Nebraskans will get if the abortion expansion ballot initiative passes," Matt Heffron of the Thomas More Society, a lawyer for the anti-abortion challengers, said in a statement. "We are deeply concerned that the Nebraska Supreme Court has allowed this intentionally deceptive initiative to go before Nebraskans for a confusing vote."

Nebraska is one of nine states expected to vote on abortion rights in November, as abortion rights advocates seek to undo new abortion bans and restrictions passed by Republican-controlled states in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling eliminating the long-standing nationwide right to abortion

Reuters contributed to the reporting of this story.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dueling abortion measures to go on Nebraska ballot