Nebraska’s ballot options

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 5th of September.

And we’re glad you’re along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Up first: abortion on the ballot.

Voters in ten states will vote on measures this fall related to abortion. But Nebraska will have two conflicting abortion amendments: one backed by pro-life groups, another by pro-abortion groups.

REICHARD: Pro-lifers brought a legal challenge to keep the pro-abortion amendment off the ballots. If that fails and both amendments pass, state law says the one with the most votes will prevail.

But some pro-lifers refuse to support the amendment sponsored by the pro-life side. Some of them pushed for a third amendment that did not qualify for the ballots.

BROWN: WORLD Reporter Leah Savas has the story.

LEAH SAVAS: Nebraska Right to Life president Sandy Danek spoke with me on the phone on August 24, the day after the Nebraska secretary of state certified two abortion amendments for the November ballot. Danek was heading to the Right to Life booth at the Nebraska State Fair to drop off more informational material about the two amendments.

SANDY DANEK: My volunteers are calling me saying we're running out of stuff already.

One of the cards urges Nebraskans to “VOTE AGAINST” the Right to Abortion amendment, saying it would result in legal late-term abortions paid for by taxpayer dollars. Planned Parenthood is one of the sponsors.

Similar amendments have passed in states like Michigan and Ohio. So, to offer moderate voters a more pro-life alternative, Nebraska Right to Life and other state and national pro-life groups are backing the other amendment. It would preserve the state’s current protections for unborn babies after 12 weeks. Danek said so far, no other state has put a rival amendment on the ballot in a bid to defeat a pro-abortion amendment.

DANEK: And we're used to being first in the nation, because we were the first ones to pass the Pain Capable Informed Child Protection Act. …so I'm hoping that we will again be first in the nation to have an alternative that holds back what Planned Parenthood is attempting.

This proposed amendment from the pro-life Protect Women and Children campaign says unborn children are protected in the second and third trimesters—except for in cases of sexual assault, incest, or medical emergency.

DANEK: The climate of the state currently gives us the thought that a 12 week, a 12 week protection is a common sense approach.

But Danek said she already knows there are some pro-lifers in the state who won’t support the amendment because it doesn’t protect babies in the first trimester or in the exceptions.

DANEK: I understand it's not where we want to be. We all admit that. But it's a matter of an incremental approach, and some people just cannot reconcile an incremental approach.

Robert Smith is one of them.

ROBERT SMITH: There’s a legal principle that says anything that is not forbidden is allowed.

Smith points out that more than 90 percent of abortions in Nebraska have historically happened in the first trimester.

SMITH: Because the Protect Women and Children initiative is silent on first trimester abortion, one can construe the language so that it means first trimester abortions are permitted. Having it in the Constitution would then constitutionally protect first trimester abortions, which is something we don't want to be doing.

Smith worked with another group, Nebraskans Embracing Life, to promote a third abortion-related amendment effort: the Choose Life Now amendment. Its language would declare unborn children to be persons under the state constitution, allowing any protection for born persons to apply to unborn babies. But the supporters started the process of getting it on the ballot too late. They only had six weeks to gather signatures from citizens and didn’t get as many as they needed.

ROSE KOHL: If we had a robust response from the church, six weeks would have been enough time to get the signatures.

That’s Rose Kohl, another sponsor of the personhood amendment.

KOHL: What surprised me was like how hostile the churches were and how many turned us away.

She and Smith say many churches instead committed to supporting the Protect Women and Children amendment effort. Smith said he got chased out of the parking lots of Baptist and Roman Catholic churches alike that had chosen to prioritize that amendment in a bid to keep the pro-abortion amendment from passing.

But Kohl thinks the concern about the pro-abortion amendment passing is overblown.

KOHL: And honestly, I don't think that one has a chance at passing in Nebraska, because Nebraska is a very conservative state that loves life.

If the amendment protecting only second and third trimester babies passes, Kohl thinks it will hinder future efforts to protect the unborn earlier in gestation.

KOHL: We could pass better laws if we don't pour concrete on the horrible situation we have right now.

To Danek with Nebraska Right to Life, the focus is on maintaining the status quo… but just for now.

SANDY DANEK: We made the determination that if we could keep the laws that we have currently in place, protecting the laws that we worked for more than 40 years to pass, then we would would at one point, or some point, we would be able to go back to the legislature and seek, perhaps, a heartbeat act.

Regardless of the outcome in November, Smith and Kohl said they intend to refile the personhood amendment as soon as possible after the November election, giving themselves plenty of time to gather signatures.

KOHL: But it's time for the church to rise up and say, hey, enough's enough. We're done with this.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leah Savas.

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