Updated: Reproductive Rights Resources in Nebraska

By Kietryn Zychal

May 11, 2022

Editor’s Note: On May 2, Politico published a leaked draft of a majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, eliminating abortion as a constitutional right and returning it to the states and the whims of the political process. If the draft becomes a final decision in June at the end of the term, abortion would be legal in states such as California, Colorado and New York but criminalized in states such as Texas, Mississippi and even Nebraska. NOISE will continue to update this resource page as the country careens toward the Court’s final decision this summer.

NOISE exclusive: Sen. Megan Hunt on the future of abortion in Nebraska

February 24, 2022

Two recent anti-abortion cases from the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas) have rocked the certainty of obtaining a safe, legal abortion in the United States in the future.

NOISE is creating this resource page on abortion services in Nebraska and will continue to update it as the legal outcomes of the Texas and Mississippi laws ripple across the United States.

Texas:

The now-infamous Texas law, SB 8, has a legal innovation commonly referred to as the "bounty hunter" provision. Instead of making government officials responsible for enforcing the law, it deputizes ordinary citizens to sue anyone who performs or "abets" an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Let's be clear about what "six weeks of pregnancy" means.

Pregnancy is calculated from the first day of a woman's last menstrual period, partly because the exact date of conception is unknown. However, the first day of a menstrual period can usually be calculated with certainty. So, for the first two weeks of pregnancy, a woman is NOT, in fact, pregnant. At four weeks of pregnancy, a woman expects to get her period (and the embryo is the size of a poppyseed). If her period is two weeks late, a woman may begin to wonder, "Am I pregnant?" This is six weeks of pregnancy, and the embryo— not fetus— is about the size of a lentil. It has miniature tubes that begin to emit electrical impulses. This is what anti-abortion legislators have inaccurately dubbed a "fetal heartbeat," when the medically accurate term might be better described as an "embryonic electronic pulse." The Texas law criminalizes abortion after a woman's period is two weeks late.

In September 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 in Whole Women's Health v. Jackson to prohibit an injunction that would stop SB 8 from going into effect. Why? Because of the "bounty hunter" provision. The usual legal mechanism for blocking enforcement of a law was unclear. Who could be sued? The plaintiffs had not adequately picked the right defendants, so the court allowed an indisputably unconstitutional law to take effect. (SB 8 is a direct affront to Roe v. Wade which allows legal abortion before the point when a fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 23 - 24 weeks. The six-week ban makes the Texas law, by definition, unconstitutional.)

In December 2021, the Court ruled 8-1 that abortion providers in Texas could sue "executive licensing officials" who must take enforcement actions against abortion providers if they violate the terms of Texas’s Health and Safety Code, including SB 8. They still allowed the six-week abortion ban to stay in place. However, they stated that the plaintiffs could bring a "pre-enforcement challenge" against SB 8 in federal court, and added that one such claim was working its way through the lower courts. Stay tuned to see if an injunction is forthcoming.

If you haven't understood these legal decisions so far, (i.e. how can an unconstitutional law be allowed to go into effect?), here's the game: it's all about procedure and rules. Who can be sued, in what court, at what time?

Mississippi:

The second anti-abortion law comes from Mississippi (the Gestational Age Act). It prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and thus is another challenge to Roe v. Wade. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was argued before SCOTUS on Dec. 1 and is not expected to be decided until June 2022.

Court watchers generally thought five Republican-appointed justices (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett) seemed open to overturning Roe v. Wade entirely because "the Constitution is neutral on abortion rights." This would allow each state to create its own abortion laws, including prohibition.

Chief Justice Roberts made the argument for allowing the federal right to abortion found in Roe v. Wade to continue, but reduce the time allowed to obtain an abortion from fetal viability (23-24 weeks) down to 15 weeks. The three Democratic-appointed justices (Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan) seemed inclined to allow Roe v. Wade to stand, as is.

Need financial help to have an abortion? Click here for Nebraska Abortion Resources

Nebraska:

Currently, there are only three clinics in the state of Nebraska that perform abortions: in Bellevue, Omaha, and Lincoln. There is also a clinic across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (See interactive map below for abortion clinics across the U.S. and driving distances from each county to the nearest clinic.)

Read the politico article with links to Justice Alito's draft opinion

ACLU: Your Rights on Seeking Abortion as a Young Person in Nebraska