Nebraska Supreme Court upholds state restrictions on gender-altering care and abortions after 12 weeks News
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Nebraska Supreme Court upholds state restrictions on gender-altering care and abortions after 12 weeks

The Supreme Court of the western US state of Nebraska on Friday upheld a state law that restricts gender-altering care for minors and limits abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The state’s Republican Party-dominated unicameral legislature passed and the governor signed the Let Them Grow Act in May 2023. Before passing, the legislature had amended the bill to include abortion restrictions after an abortion bill, the Nebraska Heartbeat Act, died in fierce debate.

Planned Parenthood challenged the law, arguing that it contained two subjects and violated Article III, Section 14 of the Nebraska Constitution, which requires that “No bill shall contain more than one subject.” The organizataion claimed that the legislature had combined two bills “into one to increase the likelihood of their passage.” But the Nebraska Supreme Court disagreed and held that the act did contain a single subject: regulating medical care. The court explained that the law marks both procedures at issue as “unprofessional conduct” for licensed health care providers.

The ACLU of Nebraska initially brought and then appealed the case for Planned Parenthood. Its executive director Mindy Rush Chipman criticized the opinion:

We respectfully disagree with the court majority’s determination, and we had of course hoped for a very different outcome. But looking beyond the legal arguments of this specific case, it is so important that Nebraskans do not lose sight of the impact of these restrictions. Nebraskans have been harmed every week since the governor signed LB 574 into law. That will continue under today’s ruling.

On the other side, Nebraska’s Attorney General Mike Hilgers welcomed the opinion:

We are grateful for the work of the Court, and its ruling upholding the constitutionality of L.B. 574. The Legislature passed Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban and its ban on gender-altering procedures for minors, and we are pleased that the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Legislature’s work.

Nebraska is one of many states that ban gender-altering care. The US Supreme Court will rule on their legality this coming term after granting certiorari in a Tennessee case in June.

 

 

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