Nebraska organizations at odds over abortion pill

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A contentious ruling suspended the abortion pill mifepristone last week as Nebraska lawmakers remain deadlocked over a proposed abortion ban.

A Texas judge suspended the pill, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for over two decades.

The ruling came from a judge with a long history of anti-abortion beliefs.

That decision now hangs in limbo, as the Biden administration appealed the decision within hours.

Nebraska Right To Life’s executive director said if the decision is upheld, it would be a win for Nebraskans because she believes the abortion pill is not safe and could have long-term health effects on women who use it.

“We have had long-standing concerns for the abortion chemical procedure,” Sandy Danek said. “There are many complications that can come from it, and there is no formal oversight for those complications.”

Other Nebraska organizations are in opposition of the judge’s decision. They said it not only sets women’s health care back decades but can ultimately become a slippery slope for women’s health care as a whole.

“It’s very dangerous when we have an activist judge who again is substituting his own personal beliefs over the agencies that have the expertise,” said Scout Richters. “I think it definitely is a slippery slope where we could see other medications including contraceptives on the line.”

While abortion rights are taking center stage nationally, locally Legislative Bill 626, or the Nebraska Heartbeat Act, will be up for debate Wednesday. It’s a bill that requires doctors to stop performing abortions if they find a cardiac activity through an ultrasound.

Right To Life said it’s necessary so doctors can be held accountable.

“In the Nebraska Heartbeat Act, if a physician ignores that law and performs an abortion anyway, they would be held to the same medical scrutiny that they would for any other malpractice that they commit.”

The ACLU of Nebraska opposes the bill.

“We at the ACLU of Nebraska have told state senators that we don’t want LB 626 to pass,” Richters said.