The debate over abortion rights continues to heat up in Nebraska, with a new effort emerging that could leave the issue up to voters in 2024.

Local abortion rights advocates — under a newly formed committee called Protect Our Rights — filed paperwork this month with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission to establish a ballot initiative that would put a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion on the 2024 ballot.

Andi Curry Grubb, a member of the committee and Nebraska executive director of Planned Parenthood of North Central States, said the committee is considering a ballot initiative, but hasn't yet committed to the effort.

"We are committed to exploring all possible options to protect our rights in Nebraska and restore the rights Nebraskans lost when politicians passed an abortion ban earlier this year," Curry Grubb said in an email.

Curry Grubb declined to give further details on the possible initiative. A petition drive would require signatures from 10% of Nebraska's registered voters to make it on the ballot. According to the latest data from the Nebraska Secretary of State's Office, that would translate into roughly 122,000 authorized signatures.

State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, who has led the charge for abortion restrictions in the Legislature, said she expects that abortion-rights supporters will launch the petition effort. But she said she believes Nebraska voters would reject a constitutional amendment protecting abortions.

"To me, it's totally obnoxious to think that people in Nebraska don't realize that we are a pro-life state," Albrecht said.

Without knowing the ballot language, it's unclear to know how the initiative would impact abortion access in Nebraska, if it were to pass. In this year's session, lawmakers tightened the state's abortion restrictions from 20 weeks post-fertilization to 12 weeks based on gestational age.

Those restrictions in LB574 took effect immediately. They have been challenged in court because the law affected both abortions and gender-affirming care options for individuals under 19. The legal challenge claims the law violated the Nebraska Constitution's single-subject rule.

A Lancaster County District Court judge recently rejected this challenge. Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska filed an appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court Friday.

Abortion rights were on the ballot in several states in 2022. In California, Michigan and Vermont, voters passed ballot measures protecting abortion rights in their state constitutions, and in Kentucky, Kansas and Montana, voters rejected measures that would have made it easier for lawmakers to increase abortion restrictions.

Following those elections, Nebraska abortion rights advocates have suggested that Nebraska voters might follow suit if they had a vote on abortion, and Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston cited the outcome of the Kansas initiative as a reason for casting the deciding vote to block a bill that would have banned abortions at six weeks gestation.

Albrecht said she believes the Kansas initiative failed because abortion rights advocates misled voters.

"It's so confusing if you're not in it every day," Albrecht said.

While Albrecht believes Nebraska voters would ultimately reject an initiative to protect abortion, she opposes a ballot initiative because she said it will lead to both sides of the debate spending too much money. She noted that a combined $22 million was spent by supporters and opponents on the Kansas ballot question.

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