overview
In Nebraska, two competing abortion bills are on the ballot. This week, the state health department issued an advisory to doctors suggesting that recent ads regarding Nebraska’s abortion restrictions are causing “confusion.” Message from the department.
Just one week before an election in which Nebraska voters will decide on two competing ballot measures related to abortion rights, the state health department is warning doctors about what it calls “misleading information” in radio and TV ads. Sent a warning.
Dr. Timothy Tesmer, Nebraska’s chief medical officer, wrote in a warning that recent ads are causing confusion regarding Nebraska’s law restricting abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, but which ads It was not made clear whether that was the case.
He cited several exceptions to this policy, including that Nebraska law does not prohibit removal of ectopic pregnancies. According to the advisory, abortions in the state will be allowed in cases of rape, incest, and in cases where there is a threat to the woman’s life or a risk of irreparable harm to key bodily functions.
Nebraska’s two abortion-related ballot measures are called Initiative 439 and Initiative 434. Initiative 439 is designed to protect the fetus until it is viable (unspecified gestational age, but usually around 22 to 24 weeks) or if necessary to protect the life of the pregnant person. It allows abortion. health.
Meanwhile, Initiative 434 would amend the state constitution to ban abortions after the second and third trimester, or 12 weeks, with some exceptions. The effort is supported by the Nebraska Rights Group, an anti-abortion rights group. Nebraska already bans most abortions after 12 weeks, so the measure won’t make much of a difference on the ground. But if passed, it could make it harder to challenge state abortion laws and open the door to further regulations.
Allie Berry, campaign manager for Protect Our Rights (Vote Yes on Initiative 439 to Repeal Nebraska’s Abortion Ban), said Initiative 434 created confusion for people to vote against 439. He said he believed it was partly intended to invite people.
Berry also suspects the health department’s recommendation was a response to her group’s ad, even though the language did not describe the specific ad.
He said the Department of Health and Gov. Jim Pillen (who held a press conference last week about “misinformation” about abortion) are “trying to cover up the fact that abortion is actually prohibited in Nebraska.” Ta.
Berry said Republicans Pillen and Tessmer are “trying to use their positions of power to further confuse voters.”
In response to the inquiry, Pillen’s office pointed to a summary of last week’s press conference in which she said she did not want “misinformation” to prevent women from seeking treatment for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies. He said his concerns have nothing to do with voting efforts in Nebraska.
Jeff Powell, communications director for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said the purpose of the health alert is to “clarify current law.”
Advertisements from Berry’s group, which supports Initiative 439, say Nebraska’s abortion ban threatens women’s lives, prevents doctors from properly treating patients, and could force women into pregnancies with no chance of survival. It suggests that there is a sex.
One ad features a woman named Kimberly Paseka, who learned she would lose her pregnancy shortly after the abortion ban went into effect last year. Paseka told NBC News that early in her pregnancy, the fetus was not developing properly and its heart rate was slow, but doctors refused to intervene.
“Because this law had just been passed, there was still heart activity and a lot of confusion,” she said. “So instead of doing anything, I was sent home for pregnancy management. Basically just waiting for a miscarriage.”
Paseka said she continued to struggle with nausea and painful contractions as she waited for the miscarriage. She underwent further ultrasounds, which she described as “a level of torture in itself, just watching something that I really wanted die.”
She eventually miscarried at the end of the first trimester.
“In the end, I passed the baby in the bathroom of our house, and it was really scary and shocking,” Paseka said.
In response to the health department’s warning, two doctors in the state said there was no confusion among doctors about how to treat ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages.
But determining what to do when the fetus still has a heartbeat can be difficult, the researchers said.
Nebraska’s abortion ban has no exception for fetal abnormalities that prevent survival outside the womb, so if a life-threatening abnormality is discovered after 12 weeks, “we can’t talk about abortion,” the speaker said. said Dr. Abigail Drucker. Member of the Nebraska Chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Her organization opposes Initiative 434 and promotes 439.
Drucker said doctors were also confused about when they would be legally allowed to intervene in certain cases where a patient’s amniotic sac was prematurely ruptured and there was a risk of infection. Ta.
“These are issues the governor hasn’t talked about,” Drucker said. “Here in Nebraska, the law limits when and how we treat that patient.”
Dr. Mary Kinyon, an Omaha obstetrician-gynecologist, said recent comments by state officials minimize the burden doctors face as a result of the state’s abortion ban.
“It’s like demonizing us as community obstetricians and gynecologists who fight for reproductive rights,” she says. “I am concerned that this will erode the credibility of obstetricians and gynecologists in our community.”
Powell said in an email that the health department has no “intent to demonize obstetricians and gynecologists or other health care professionals in Nebraska” and that “DHHS has great respect for both the medical profession and the doctor-patient relationship.” “I am doing so,” he said.
The controversy in Nebraska is reminiscent of a similar controversy in Florida this month. The Florida Department of Health has sent cease-and-desist letters to multiple stations that aired ads supporting the abortion rights ballot measure. The lawyer who wrote the letter on behalf of the department has since resigned.
The network threatened criminal charges against broadcasters who did not stop playing the ads, but a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, halting the threat. On Thursday, a judge extended the order for two weeks, either after the election or until a judge rules on a request for a preliminary injunction barring the health department from making further threats against the TV station.
