Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

Nebraska Takes Aim at Roe

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Type:

News, Story

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

07.08.2010

News

Nebraska Takes Aim at Roe

Justin Goldberg

Share

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id
https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/NE.JPG

Pregnant with their third child, Timothy and Dawn Mosher never thought they would seek an abortion. But five months into Dawn’s pregnancy, doctors diagnosed the fetus with an extreme and irreparable spinal cord defect called spina bifida. This devastating condition would have subjected the Moshers’ child to a brief life filled with incredible pain and, ultimately, a premature death. After careful thought, the Moshers made the excruciating choice to have an abortion in order to spare their child from such a fate.



Timothy Mosher was compelled to publicly share his family’s story this past spring when Nebraska lawmakers seized on flimsy claims about fetal pain in order to ban almost all abortions at or after the 20th week of pregnancy—making it impossible for a woman in the Moshers’ situation to obtain a safe abortion. If anyone could attest to the “raw edges of human existence” that prompt women to seek abortions, as so eloquently described by former Justice Harry Blackmun in the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, it would be the Moshers. “We couldn’t force our little girl to live in constant pain and suffering before dying a pre-mature death,” Mosher told a legislative panel.



But Nebraska lawmakers were unmoved by either Mosher’s testimony or sound arguments by the Center and other reproductive rights advocates, who warned them that the law flouts long-established constitutional precedent and endangers women’s health. On April 13, Nebraska’s legislature and governor approved the measure, the most extreme abortion law in recent U.S. history, agreeing only to delay its effective date until October. The Center is now exploring legal options for challenging the ban.



Until now, a dividing line between legal and illegal abortions was determined by the ability of the fetus to survive outside the womb, usually at around 24 weeks. The Supreme Court has repeatedly made it clear that states cannot ban abortion for any reason before that time, and that the exact point at which a fetus is viable must be determined by a physician using his or her medical judgment. By replacing viability with fetal pain—even though there is no credible evidence that a fetus may feel pain at 20 weeks—Nebraska created new grounds for the government to interfere in a woman’s life and cut off her access to abortion. And by seeking to challenge Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court, the new law threatens to redraw the line for women across the country, threatening their basic right to decide what is best for them and their families.



Indeed, what is particularly disturbing about Nebraska’s abortion ban is that its tight focus on the fetus completely erases the woman—her health, wellbeing, and concerns—from the picture. The Supreme Court has consistently held that even after viability, women must be able to obtain abortions if their lives or health—including their mental health—are at risk. Under Nebraska’s new law, however, abortion is only allowed if a woman is near death or at risk of irreversible physical harm to a major bodily function.



Thus, a woman suffering from a severe mental illness, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, who cannot take the recommended medication due to a pregnancy, or a woman who tragically learns after the 20th week of pregnancy that her fetus has a severe anomaly would have no choice but to carry the pregnancy to term.



The law even explicitly prohibits physicians from providing abortions to women who are suicidal. The callousness with which proponents of this abortion ban view women’s health was made clear during the legislative hearings. When asked what a doctor should do if he or she has a pregnant patient at risk of suicide, one Nebraska lawmaker stated outright that the doctor should simply have the woman committed to a mental health facility for the duration of her pregnancy.



According to Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska abortion provider, “the law will make it harder for patients to get an abortion when they really need them, when they are under the most desperate of circumstances, and even when they are clearly medically, morally, and religiously justified.”



Over the years, state lawmakers have made an art of obstructing a woman’s access to abortion through onerous legal restrictions, such as 24-hour waiting periods and parental involvement laws. But rarely have they attacked the central tenets of Roe v. Wade head-on in the way that Nebraska has. “If some of these other anti-abortion bills have been chipping away at Roe v. Wade, Nebraska’s legislation takes an ax to it,” said Nancy Northup, the Center’s president.



Undoubtedly, the most recent Supreme Court abortion case, Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the first federal abortion ban, emboldened Nebraska legislators. Some of them believe that the case leaves open the door for states to ban abortion for reasons other than viability. But the law at issue in Gonzales v. Carhart did not ban abortions in general, nor did it ban abortions at any particular point in pregnancy. Furthermore, nothing in the Court’s ruling suggests that a state could ban all abortions at a point prior to viability, nor did it indicate that a comprehensive health exception is no longer required.



There was a good reason the Supreme Court established the limits it did on states’ ability to restrict abortion: it recognized that a woman’s right to control her body and protect her health deserved the utmost protection, and that women are in the best position to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. Less than 1.5% of all abortions take place at or after 20 weeks gestation, and when they do it is often for the most agonizing of reasons—danger to a woman’s health or life, or, as in the Moshers’ case, a grim diagnosis for the fetus. These are decisions no one wants to have to make, but wresting them away from women and their families would substitute the arbitrary control of lawmakers for a compassionate approach led by families and their doctors.


Related Posts

Azar v. Garza Amicus Brief

Abortion,United States,In the Courts

Complaint: Falls Church Healthcare Center et al. v. Norman Oliver et al.

Abortion,United States,In the Courts

Amicus Brief: State of California et al. v. Alex M. Azar et al.

Other Barriers, Contraception,United States,In the Courts

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Gift Acceptance Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2024)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Better Business Bureau Charity Watch Top Rated Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up