Nebraska lawmakers listened to testimony Thursday about a bill that would protect unborn babies by banning all abortions as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned.
KETV 7 reports state Sen. Joni Albrecht, R-Thurston, said her bill, the Nebraska Human Life Protection Act (LB 933), would ensure that every human life is protected in Nebraska.
“Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, there have been almost 200,000 abortions in Nebraska,” Albrecht said.
Sometimes referred to as a trigger bill, Albrecht said 12 other states already have similar laws in place to ban abortions as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to do so. Her bill would prohibit all abortions except when the mother’s life is at risk. Abortionists who violate the ban would be charged with a felony.
“… every person from the moment of conception” deserves legal protection, Albrecht said, the Omaha World-Herald reports. “Both the woman and the child are worthy of being loved, and they deserve better than abortion.”
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The legislation would save thousands of unborn babies from abortion every year. According to state health data, there were 2,378 abortions in 2020 in Nebraska.
Ryan Bomberger, a pro-life leader and founder of the Radiance Foundation, testified in favor of the legislation. Bomberger told lawmakers that his birth mother was raped but she chose life for him anyway.
“They say that I should have been aborted. I was conceived in rape but adopted in love,” he said.
Another pro-life advocate, Emily Pollen, who also is a foster parent, also urged lawmakers to protect unborn babies from abortion, pointing to the many resources available to pregnant mothers, KETV 7 reports.
“It’s ludicrous to kill humans in the name of poverty or lack of resources,” Pollen said.
A number of abortion activists testified against the bill, saying lawmakers should stay out of women’s reproductive decisions. Among the groups opposing the pro-life legislation were the Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers and the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, according to the World-Herald.
During a separate legislative hearing Thursday, state Sen. Megan Hunt, D-Omaha, urged lawmakers to expand abortions with a bill she introduced to allow advanced practice nurses, midwives and physician assistants to abort unborn babies. The bill has almost no chance of passing the Republican-controlled legislature.
Hunt also promised to filibuster any pro-life legislation that comes to the full Senate for a vote, according to the local news.
“I’m going to take to block those bills because above all I stand for the rights of women and the rights of people to control their own fertility,” the Democrat lawmaker said.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers also are considering other bills to protect unborn babies from abortion, including a heartbeat bill introduced by state Sen. Julie Slama, R-Sterling, and another bill (LB 1086) to require medical supervision for women taking abortion drugs.
A recent Gallup poll found that 52 percent of Americans take a pro-life position on abortion, waiting all (19 percent) or almost all (33 percent) of abortions made illegal. In contrast, 45 percent of Americans say all (32 percent) or almost all (13 percent) abortions should be legal.
Currently, however, states are forced to legalize abortions for any reason up to viability under Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Because of these cases, the U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortions after 20 weeks.
Since 1973, more than 63 million unborn babies and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mothers have died in supposedly “safe,” legal abortions.
ACTION ALERT: Contact Nebraska state lawmakers to urge support for these pro-life bills.
