Abortion ban fails to advance in Nebraska Legislature

After senators spent all of Wednesday debating the bill, a cloture motion failed

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Opponents stopped a bill that would effectively ban abortion in the Nebraska Legislature on Wednesday.

Senators voted 31-15 for a cloture motion to advance the bill, short of the 33 needed.

“LB 933 will not stop abortion; it will just make abortion more dangerous,” Hunt said.

Lawmakers spent all of Wednesday debating Sen. Joni Albrecht’s bill, which would hold doctors criminally liable for administering an abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court.

“The Human Life Protection Act would make direct, intentional abortion illegal in the state of Nebraska,” Albrecht said.

In response to Albrecht’s bill, Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha filed a motion to indefinitely postpone the bill. Doing so invoked Nebraska’s cloture rule, which requires that senators debate a bill for eight hours before a vote to advance or kill the bill.

“If anybody is against abortion or doesn’t want to get an abortion, I understand and I respect that completely,” Hunt said. “What we can’t do is make physicians felons for using their best judgment.”

One by one, senators who support abortion voiced their opposition to the bill:

“This makes Nebraska dangerous to live in as a woman,” Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln said.

“When do the rights of the embryo or the zygote supersede the rights of the woman?” asked Sen. Jen Day of Gretna.

“You’re pro-birth, not pro-life,” Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh said to anti-abortion colleagues in the legislature. “Big difference. Big, big difference.”

Thirteen U.S. states already have trigger laws in place that would ban abortion automatically if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

Anti-abortion senators made the case for why Nebraska should follow suit.

“These babies are individual, unique people that are deserving of protection, even if they happen to not be born yet,” Speaker Mike Hilgers of Lincoln said.

“Whether we agree spiritually or not, there has to be some agreement here that life is precious,” Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln said.