As promised, the American Civil Liberties Union is suing to block the Nebraska Legislature’s controversial measure combining a 12-week abortion ban with restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.
The lawsuit, filed in state court by the ACLU on behalf of Planned Parenthood and one of its doctors who performs abortions in Nebraska, argues that the law violates a state constitutional requirement that legislative bills stick to a single subject.
The lawsuit is also asking for an injunction to block enforcement of the trans health and abortion restrictions until the court case is decided.
The original bill dealt strictly gendering-affirming care, but added late in the passage process was an immediate ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
The ban was shoehorned in as an amendment after a separate bill to ban abortion at about six weeks failed to overcome a filibuster.
ACLU Nebraska Executive Director Mindy Rush Chipman says the ACLU believes the combination of the bans violated the clear text of the state’s constitution,” adding that the bottom line is that senators do not get to pick and choose which constitutional requirements they will follow when making laws.”
The new law prevents people under 19 from receiving gender-confirming surgery and restricts the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers in minors when those restrictions go into effect Oct. 1.
It will put the state’s chief medical officer – a politically appointed post currently held by an ear, nose and throat doctor – in charge of setting the rules for hormone therapies for those already getting such treatments and those who demonstrate a “long-lasting and intense pattern of gender nonconformity or gender dysphoria.”
The proposal restricting gender-affirming care was the flashpoint of an epic filibuster brought against virtually every measure on the floor in an attempt to run out the clock on the bill, sending leadership scrambling to prioritize which bills to push through.
Lawmakers opposed to the hybrid bill had warned that it would face a lawsuit if passed. The ACLU’s lawsuit argues that the Legislature wrongly logrolled two distinct, unrelated subjects into one combined bill.
The law says “the single-subject rule prevents logrolling, namely, the passage of legislation that, if standing alone, could not muster the necessary votes for enactment.
The single-subject rule also promotes transparency in the legislative process and accountability by lawmakers.
When a bill contains more than one subject, it is impossible to know whether the lawmaker’s vote signaled support for, or opposition to, the entire bill, or just some of it.”
Omaha Senator Kathleen Kauth, a freshman lawmaker who introduced the trans health restriction bill that later morphed into the hybrid bill, says she’s confident it will survive legal scrutiny.
“I mean, it’s called the ‘Let Them Grow Act,’” she says of her original bill. “I think restricting abortion is very much in that same subject.”
Governor Jim Pillen declined to comment, citing his office’s policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
Hell yeah if you’re gonna follow the rule for a bill that legalizes cannabis but then break the rule for a law that restricts bodily autonomy then you deserve to be sued
I vote conservative because I want small government keep your laws away from my guns my land and my body and we Gucci
And duck your sky God one of the reasons I love America is I’m free to follow whatever religion I choose
just because your make believe God doesn’t like abortions and trans people doesn’t mean we should make it a law
America is not a Christian nation our constitution guarantees religious freedom and the separation of church and state if you want to thump the bible you never read go do it in church or at home
Why the conservative party has become the Christian party is absurd and I hope they drop it like a slippery pickle because it’s only causing them to lose elections
Long live Ozzy and duck sickos
Circle of protection on the ACLU may their lawsuit strike down this corrupt legislation from NEGOP criminals
so mote it be in the witches circle
The science is clear: the life in the mother’s uterus is a human life, thus entitled to human rights. People’s opinions don’t change Natural Law, neither do lawsuits from the so-called ACLU. If you don’t want the kid, there are a number of ways to adopt them out. As for genital mutilation, wait until the kids are adults to make life-altering decisions. Honestly though, such procedures violate the hippocratic oath. I’m anticipating that the ACLU lawsuit will fail.
If your thesis of science is clear, than you should be able to ‘remove it’ at any time and it will survive. Why should someone be forced to grow a foreign body in their own human personal body? What do you think females are? Breeding stock? And praise tell where in the USA do they do any surgery on a minor to ‘mutilate’ them? Name three with source of info. Verify your facts. ‘I heard’ or ‘someone told me’ or ‘they said’ just doesn’t hold up to reality.
The value of a human being is not determined by how viable they are to survive on their own. Even outside the womb, babies are still completely reliant on their mothers for survival. Are they not valuable? We don’t view women as chattel. We view pregnant women as mothers of priceless children just as much as a nursing mothers are. Both mother and child deserve support and care so they can prosper.
There have been numerous cases involving hospitals performing genital mutilation, or “gender reassignment” surgeries on minors. A peer-reviewed study by the Journal of Clinical Medicine published in March 2022 ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9000168/pdf/jcm-11-01943.pdf ) specifically mentions Boston Children’s Hospital as having performed “gender reassignment” surgeries on minors as young as 15. Only after a popular social media account exposed them did the hospital hastily sweep it under the rug.
Stanford Medicine Children’s Health offers breast removal for minors. ( https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/service/gender/top-surgery )
Connecticut Children’s Hospital proudly offers surgical options for “gender affirmation” in adolescents. ( https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/search-specialties/plastic-surgery/plastic-surgery-services/gender-affirmation-surgery/ )
The Gender Health Clinic at Children’s Wisconsin offers “surgical treatments” to patients through age 16. ( https://childrenswi.org/medical-care/endocrine/gender-health-clinic )
It only takes an internet search to learn the types of procedures that are out there. Phalloplasty is one example. I’ve seen the images, and they’re not pretty. Children deserve better than to be coaxed into permanently altering their own bodies. That’s part of why the Let Them Grow Act Act was passed and signed.