Should the current attempts in the Northeast be successful, abortions beyond the sixth week would be prohibited.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Nebraskans demonstrated against a “heartbeat legislation” in front of a committee hearing in the state Capitol. The vast majority of pregnancies are found accidentally in the first trimester, but under this criterion, abortion would be illegal.
After the sixth week of pregnancy, when a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, it would be unlawful to have an abortion.
In her opening speech before the Health and Human Services Committee of the Washington State Legislature on Wednesday, Republican Senator Joni Albrecht from Thurston said, “This proposal is about one thing: protecting newborns with beating hearts from elective abortion.”
Lawmakers who disagree with the prohibition have already begun to dilute it. On Wednesday, before the hearing even started, more than 300 individuals (including physicians and clergy) gathered in the Capitol rotunda to protest the prohibition.
Omaha Democrat Megan Hunt, who is vehemently opposed to abortion restrictions, has urged the bill’s proponents to keep bringing it up.
“What we need is a real, long-lasting moral anger. When Hunt remarked, “They need to feel your excitement,” the audience erupted in chants of “We’ll never stop!” and “No more bans.”
Also, Hunt took an effort to move the measure from the conservative HHS committee, where it would have garnered unanimous approval, to the more politically neutral Judiciary Committee. Given that the measure would make most abortions illegal if enacted, she and other members requested that the Judiciary Committee review it.
Abortion opponents argued that neither women seeking abortions nor abortion providers would face any legal consequences if the ban were to pass, but it was ultimately defeated in a vote last week. However, doctors who conduct illegal abortions risk losing their license to practice and facing serious disciplinary action.
There are no criminal penalties included in the measure text, but some senators are worried that doctors may be subject to punishment under existing state law. There are now jurisdictions where it is illegal to carry out an abortion procedure.
John Cavanaugh, the Democratic senator for Nebraska, is both a lawyer and a member of the party’s liberal wing. In my opinion, the prosecution and perhaps a jury would find you guilty of violating that criminal law if they determined that you had conducted an abortion that was not following medical practice to the point where you risk losing your medical license “His words exactly.
As an example of a problem that has yet to be fixed in Norfolk, the prosecution of a 41-year-old lady who gave her 17-year-old daughter abortion drugs 24 weeks into the teen’s pregnancy is provided.
According to Cavanaugh, the government will take action “by looking at the statute and determining methods to prosecute.”
Kacie Ware, 35, of Omaha is monitoring the newest push to outlaw abortion in the red state. She was frequently raped starting when she was 15 years old, which resulted in an unintended pregnancy at age 16 and a subsequent abortion. She claimed that she would not have been allowed to terminate her sixth-week pregnancy if the proposed restriction had been in effect.
So long as you agree with Ware, “For the sake of stopping the pregnancy, I would have placed her life in peril and been prepared to die in a matter of minutes. More restrictive abortion laws have not resulted in fewer abortions, in my personal experience. Because of this, no more legal, safe abortions will be possible.”
Upon becoming law, this measure would become Nebraska the sixth state after Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee to limit abortions based on fetal cardiac activity. Nebraska has been pushing for stricter abortion regulations, despite being the first state to ban abortions beyond the twentieth week of pregnancy in 2010.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to abortion in the United States for nearly half a century, anti-abortion lawmakers tried to pass a so-called trigger bill that would have automatically banned nearly all abortions, including those caused by rape or incest. To overcome the filibuster, 33 votes were required, but only 31 were cast.
Nebraska is officially a non-partisan state; yet, the state’s 49 legislative seats are held by the Democratic Party. Therefore, pro-life lawmakers in Nebraska would again fall short of the 60-vote threshold needed to enact legislation. However, the inclusion of the rape and incest exemptions has caused proponents of abortion rights to wonder if the coalition that successfully blocked a similar measure last year will be as strong this time around.