{"id":32190,"date":"2022-03-25T16:10:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T22:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=32190"},"modified":"2022-03-25T16:10:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T22:10:06","slug":"abortion-ban-pulled-from-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=32190","title":{"rendered":"Abortion ban pulled from committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill that would ban all abortions in Nebraska if states are given full regulatory authority over the procedure was placed on general file March 25 after a successful procedural motion.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Joni Albrecht<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB933, introduced by Thurston Sen. Joni Albrecht, would become operative contingent upon one of the three national \u201ctriggering\u201d events: if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade<\/em>, Congress enacts a law giving states complete authority to regulate abortion or the U.S. Constitution is amended to give states that authority.<\/p>\n

The bill would prohibit both medical and chemical abortions starting at fertilization with no exception for cases of rape or incest. A physician who knowingly violates the bill’s provisions would be subject to a Class IIA felony charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.<\/p>\n

A physician charged under the bill\u2019s provisions could claim a defense that the procedure was necessary to prevent a woman\u2019s death. A woman who attempts or has an abortion would not be liable under the bill. Medical treatment provided by a licensed physician that results in accidental death or injury of an unborn fetus also would not be a violation.<\/p>\n

Albrecht filed a motion to place the bill on general file, even though the Judiciary Committee has not voted to advance it.<\/p>\n

She said the state is facing a \u201chistoric moment\u201d that requires action from lawmakers. More than 200,000 abortions \u2014 a number equal to approximately 10 percent of the state\u2019s population \u2014 have occurred in Nebraska since Roe v. Wade<\/em> was decided in 1973, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPull motions should indeed be rare, but they are allowed under our rules for a purpose,\u201d Albrecht said. \u201c[LB933] addresses a statewide issue with broad public support and the committee has declined to either advance or kill the bill. It has been 43 days since the bill hearing for LB933 in the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norfolk Sen. Michael Flood spoke in support of the motion to pull the bill from committee. Nebraska is a pro-life state, he said, and the Legislature has a significant historical investment in protecting the lives of the unborn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m not someone who is normally fond of pull motions \u2014 this is an issue that has been tearing at the hearts of Americans since Roe v. Wade<\/em> was decided,\u201d Flood said. \u201cThis rises to the level of an issue that we must address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil also spoke in favor of the motion, saying it is important for bills to be debated by the full Legislature and for Nebraskans to provide input to their senators on how to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe committee process works in most cases. But sometimes, the committees are set up so they don\u2019t reflect very closely at all what the makeup of the Legislature is,\u201d Murman said. \u201cIn that case, I think the pull motion is very valuable because the people of Nebraska need to know where their senators stand on the most important issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt spoke in opposition to the motion. Hunt said the purpose of the committee process is for members to become experts in the subject matter that comes before the committee. Pull motions subvert that process, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last four years, we\u2019ve seen this motion used time and time again to subvert the committee process to move radical, anti-women, anti-family [and] anti-choice bills through this Legislature in ways that the majority of Nebraskans just don\u2019t agree with,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha also spoke in opposition to the pull motion, saying the procedure should be reserved for addressing urgent matters. LB933 would not meet that standard because it is a \u201ctrigger\u201d bill, he said, and would take effect only if the U.S. Supreme Court gives states sole authority over the procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe argument to pull a bill to the floor, to be debated and to be voted on by this body \u2014 that will actually have no effect unless certain circumstances happens \u2014 does not seem to meet the standard of a pull motion,\u201d Cavanaugh said.<\/p>\n

Senators voted 28-13 to adopt the motion to advance LB933 to general file. A majority vote of the Legislature was required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would ban all abortions in Nebraska if states are given full regulatory authority over the procedure was placed on general file March 25 after a successful procedural motion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[188],"class_list":["post-32190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","tag-sen-joni-albrecht"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/LB933Albrecht3-25-22a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32190"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32193,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32190\/revisions\/32193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}