12-Week Abortion Ban Amended Into Ban On Gender-Affirming Treatments For Minors

     Conservatives in the Nebraska Legislature got just enough votes after 6 raucous hours of debate Tuesday to fold a proposed 12-week abortion ban into a bill that would ban gender-affirming health for minors.

The merged bill must still pass another 2 hours of debate before it can win final approval, which can’t begin until Thursday.

     Lawmakers opposed to the plan sparred angrily with Lt Gov Joe Kelly, who presided over the Legislature, accusing him of trashing legislative rules limiting bills to a single subject to help push through the plan. 

     Multiple motions, calls for points of order and motions to overrule the chair stretched what was supposed to be a 2-hour process to 6 hours before supporters got the 33 votes needed to end debate..Gov Jim Pillen celebrated and repeated his promise to sign the bill if it passes. It has an emergency clause and go into effect immediately

     Hundreds of protesters filled the Capitol rotunda just outside the chamber doors for the full 6 hours, nearly drowning out debate at times with chants, shouts and foot stomping.

       Several protesters also stood in the balcony inside the chamber chanting, “One more vote to save our lives; you can’t defeat our human rights!” before the balconies were cleared. 

     Lawmakers who voted for the merged bill fled the building immediately after through a back tunnel with state police escorts to avoid facing angry protesters – leading Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt to berate them as cowards.

      Conservatives see the 12-week ban as a compromise. Opposing lawmakers say it’s an unprecedented attempt to take another bite at the apple after they were promised by Speaker John Arch that an abortion ban would not be revived this year.

      Adding to the tumult is the underlying trans health bill, which bans hormone treatments, puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery for anyone 18 and younger. An amended version makes exceptions for minors already on hormone treatments, but it also gives the state’s chief medical officer power to set the rules. 

      Dr Timothy Tesmer, appointed by Gov Jim Pillen has already gone on record supporting a full ban on gender-affirming treatments for minors. Opponents say the amended bill would give him the power to block such treatments, even for those minors grandfathered in.

9 thoughts on “12-Week Abortion Ban Amended Into Ban On Gender-Affirming Treatments For Minors”

  1. If you play then you either pay or give the new born up for adoption. there are alot of people who want.to be parents that can’t be. And as for abortion I am not for it. How would you feel if you were not wanted?

  2. So..a female doesn’t have any rights? Abortions should be rare and only in extreme circumstances but NO ONE should make those choices for other people. Pregnancy is not, I repeat NOT, all hearts and flowers. There are life time ramifications to the body that are not pleasant. To force someone to carry a dead embryo because the ‘time limit’ for removal has passed is nothing short of cruel. Females shouldn’t be expendable and not all birth control methods work 100%. Wouldn’t it be easier to make it mandatory ALL males be sterilized after fathering an unwanted embryo?

    • It seems rather strange that with so many items available that would kill sperm or at least stop it, there is such a demand by those who want to euthanize babies. In the case of rape, this would not necessarily apply, but, duh, if you play the game you had better be prepared for the final score. Take responsibility, please. The babies you want to kill are just small humans. They deserve to live. Who knows? They may become president some day.

  3. Chances are it will get overturned by the Nebraska Supreme Court for violating the single issue rule like the marijuana ballot initiative was in 2020, or get reversed through a ballot initiative like capitol punishment in 2016.

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