Nebraska votes on restrictions on abortion and transgender care for minors
Nebraska lawmakers were expected to vote Friday on a bill that would address two of the most fraught issues this year in state legislative sessions across the country: access to abortion and medical care for transgender youth.
During the closing days of a session marked by rowdy debate and continued filibustering over the two issues, conservative lawmakers bundled provisions restricting access to both forms of medical treatment into a single bill. A vote was expected to take place Friday afternoon in Nebraska’s one-house legislature, which is nominally nonpartisan but dominated by Republicans.
The conflation of the two issues that have consumed many state lawmakers this year was largely for practical reasons in Nebraska’s capital: Proponents of restrictions on abortion and transgender medical treatment were running out of time to push the issues ahead of court. to print as independent laws ended.
The mixed bill, known as LB 574, contains looser restrictions than the original provisions Republicans tried to pass. Republicans saw it as a compromise, while Democrats were outraged by what they saw as a last-minute fight to revive restrictions on abortion.
Nebraska Republicans had initially tried to ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, but the move failed and the altered proposal sets the limit at 12 weeks. The bill under consideration Friday includes exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies.
An earlier bill on medical treatment for transgender people would have barred minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery. But after extensive debate and backroom negotiations, Republicans scaled back their target to ensure they would receive enough support.
The bill, which is expected to go to a vote Friday, bans surgery but calls for the state’s chief physician to establish criteria by which puberty blockers and hormone therapy can be administered to people under the age of 19. The restriction would take effect from October 1.
State Senator Ben Hansen, a Republican who proposed linking the abortion limit to the bill restricting transgender care, said neither side would walk away with a clear victory.
“I feel like this is what good governance is all about,” Mr. Hansen said. “We listened to what the opposition had to say, slammed on the brakes and spent it compromisingly.”
Democrats in Nebraska’s 49-seat unicameral legislature did not see it that way. They expressed concern that the chief physician was the one appointed by the Republican governor, would have heavy requirements to access puberty blockers and hormones.
“This could be a back door to a full ban,” said Sen. John Fredrickson, an Omaha Democrat who was among lawmakers who spent weeks filibustering in an attempt to block the original transgender bill. “I don’t see this as a compromise in any way.”
The bill says puberty blockers and hormones could be prescribed to patients with a “prolonged and intense pattern of gender abnormality or gender dysphoria that began or worsened at the onset of puberty.” It stipulates that those treatments may only be administered after a person has attended an undetermined number of psychotherapy sessions.
The bill is the latest in the country’s battle over reproductive care. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, 14 other states have banned the most abortions. Restrictions are being fought in the courts in several states.
Nebraska Democrats rejoiced last month when the effort to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy fell short by a single vote. Senator Merv Riepe, a Republican, thought the six-week ban was too strict, dooming the passage of the bill. Mr Riepe has expressed support for the proposed 12-week ban and this week voted in favor of efforts to merge the two issues.
Governor Jim Pillen, a Republican, welcomed the move to advance both provisions with one bill in a statement on Tuesday and thanked lawmakers for standing up for “common sense, conservative values.” If the bill passes Friday, Mr Pillen said he would sign it into law.
The battle over both issues shattered traditions of civility and bipartisanship in a state where lawmakers have long tried to stay away from the divisions of national politics.
The intensity of the debate this year in Nebraska came in part because the issue of banning transgender health care was deeply personal to Democrats. One of the chamber’s liberal legislators, Senator Megan Hunt, has a transgender son. During legislative debates, she angrily accused Republican colleagues of wanting to abolish her parental rights by law.
Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat who led filibuster efforts to prevent Republicans from passing their original proposal, said those opposed to limits on abortion and transgender healthcare would continue to fight through the courts and other means. She said the hard-fought legislative session had fueled activism in Nebraska.
“I think the only victory in this is that trans people, especially trans youth, are no longer invisible,” she said.