Neb. Bill To Ban Abortion After 20 Weeks Could Start Legal Battle

A Nebraska bill (LB 1103) that would ban abortion after 20 weeks' gestation in nearly all cases could prompt a legal battle regarding its constitutionality, the Omaha World-Herald reports. The bill, introduced by Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood (R), would allow abortion past 20 weeks only to save the woman's life or to "avert serious risk or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function." Current Nebraska law bans abortion after viability except to preserve the life or health of the woman.

Flood's bill claims there is "substantial evidence" that fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks and proposes to use the fetus' ability to feel pain, rather than viability, as the dividing line between legal and illegal abortion, the World-Herald reports. Flood said he introduced the measure to stop abortion provider LeRoy Carhart from performing procedures late in pregnancy. Carhart has said that he plans to offer late abortions at his Bellevue, Neb., clinic as a way to continue the work of George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider who was killed last May (Stoddard, Omaha World-Herald, 1/22). Flood claims that the 2007 Supreme Court decision Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, "clearly affirmed that the state has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving fetal life and promoting respect for human life at all stages of pregnancy."

Lawmakers in several states have cited the 2007 decision to support legislation requiring women to receive certain information before abortion procedures. Janet Crepps of the Center for Reproductive Rights said the Nebraska bill goes much further and has several constitutional flaws. "The Supreme Court has drawn a clear line between requiring women to receive certain information and telling them they can't have abortions before viability," Crepps said. She added, "The Supreme Court has made clear there's no state interest that trumps a woman's interest in having an abortion before viability."

Carhart and other abortion-rights supporters also dispute Flood's assertions regarding fetal pain (Jenkins, AP/Columbus Telegram, 1/22). Carhart said he is prepared to fight Flood's bill in court, adding, "We've been to the Supreme Court twice. I have no problem going again" (Omaha World-Herald, 1/22).


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