Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — One year after a knock-down, drag-out fight over abortion, the Nebraska Legislature will be confronted with another controversial topic surrounding reproductive rights.
State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, who helped broker a compromise last year that led to passage of a stricter, 12-week ban on abortion, introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow the procedure in cases where fetal anomalies would “result in the death of a preborn child upon birth or inevitably thereafter.”
Riepe called his Legislative Bill 1109 a “clean-up bill” that makes the 12-week ban “more reasonable and respectable.” It would avoid a case like one in Texas, he said, where an expectant mother who needed an emergency abortion due to a fatal condition of her fetus had to go to another state to get it.
While Riepe said his bill will “face resistance” in the conservative Unicameral, he feels that it could reduce support for a ballot initiative in Nebraska that, if passed by voters, would permit an abortion until a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, which occurs at about 23 weeks.
“I believe the best defense is the best offense,” Riepe said. “I want this (current law) to look a little more attractive when people go to sign the petition or vote for it.”
Under LB 1109, a physician who performs an abortion would have to provide a written report on the nature of the anomaly and the names of two doctors who diagnosed it.
Immediate reaction was less than supportive.
Sandy Danek of Nebraska Right to Life said she disagreed that adding fetal anomaly exceptions to the 12-ban would make the state’s law more reasonable or thwart the ballot initiative.
Danek pointed out that a year ago, the New York Times reported that non-invasive tests for fetal anomalies were inaccurate 85% of the time.
Babies deserve ‘same dignity’
“Why would we want to put families through an invasive procedure that takes the life of a child when it’s so uncertain that this child indeed has this anomaly?” she said.
Marion Miner of the Nebraska Catholic Conference said that babies who receive a prenatal diagnosis deserve the “same dignity” as other babies, “and not simply abandoned to abortion.”
Andi Curry Grubb of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska said Riepe’s proposal makes “black-and-white” medical decisions that doctors last year testified had to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
“Ultimately, people need to be able to make these decisions themselves without the government interfering,” Curry Grubb said.
Uncertain fate
The bill faces an uncertain fate in the Legislature. To pass, it would require many opponents of abortion rights to support a measure that expands the procedure.
Riepe, a former hospital administrator, was a key player in the passage of the 12-week ban a year ago.
He had declined to provide the necessary 33rd vote to end debate and allow advancement of a proposed “heartbeat” abortion bill. But his opposition helped prompt a compromise that had the votes to pass — a ban on abortion after 12 weeks of gestation.
Anomaly exemption dropped last year
As part of last year’s compromise, Riepe dropped out his proposed language to allow exceptions for fetal anomalies, which allowed physicians who perform abortions under those circumstances to avoid the possible loss of their medical license.
The senator pledged to keep pursuing such an exemption.
Riepe said he decided to introduce his bill this year, instead of later, because of the pending initiative petition drive that could inscribe abortion rights in the State Constitution, and to avoid a situation like that faced in Texas.
“There’s a difference between the elective abortion and the medically necessary abortion,” he said. “This has everyone thing to do with the necessary abortions of babies who are already lost.”
Fetal anomalies, Riepe added, are often not detected until after 12 weeks of gestation.