Planned Parenthood and allies want ‘right to abortion’ on Nebraska ballot

A pro-abortion organization in Nebraska has taken the first step toward creating an initiative on the state’s 2024 ballot that would make abortion a right under the state constitution. The news comes as Planned Parenthood filed an appeal on Friday to the Nebraska Supreme Court in its legal challenge to LB 574, which protects preborn children from abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Protect Our Rights, a pro-abortion coalition group, filed paperwork earlier in August in support of a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to include abortion as a right. While the actual language for the amendment has not yet been proposed, the Secretary of State will be required to sign off on it before the organization can begin to collect the necessary signatures from 10% of the state’s registered voters including five percent of the registered voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties, according to The Hill.

Involved in the attempt to add abortion as a right in the state constitution is Planned Parenthood, which also filed an appeal on Friday to block the state’s pro-life law. Protect Our Rights is a coalition organized in part by Andi Curry Grubb, the executive director for Nebraska of Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) and executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska. PPNCS is a Planned Parenthood affiliate that includes the former Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.

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Though the language of the proposed amendment is still unknown, establishing abortion as a right in the constitution would erase the state’s pro-life law protecting preborn children from abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy and likely prevent other pro-life laws from being passed in the future.

“Nebraska has been a leader in pro-life legislation, including parental consent, ending taxpayer funding of abortion, banning abortion once a baby can feel pain, eliminating dismemberment abortions, and the recently passed Preborn Child Protection Act,” said Sandy Danek, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life. “A ballot initiative could negate these current laws that have been supported by a majority of Nebraskans. I am confident that once Nebraskans understand the consequences of this effort, they will reject it.”

A false “right” to killing preborn human beings was added to the constitutions of California, Michigan, and Vermont in 2022, and in Kentucky, Kansas, and Montana, voters rejected pro-life measures on those ballots.