(September 2, 2024 – Lincoln, Nebraska) On August, 30, 2024, the Nebraska Supreme Court allowed a constitutional challenge against the “Protect the Right to Abortion – Constitutional Initiative” to move forward—agreeing to hear a request for a relatively rare proceeding known as an “original action,” which was presented directly to the state Supreme Court. Thomas More Society attorneys filed on August 30 an amended request for an original action on behalf of Carolyn LaGreca, after Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen issued a statement that he would permit the initiative to be placed on the November 2024 general election ballot, “[b]arring any legal challenges.”

Thomas More Society attorneys argue that the abortion initiative violates the Nebraska Constitution’s Single Subject Rule, which mandates that “[i]nitiative measures shall contain only one subject. In addition to proposing a fundamental right to abortion before viability, the abortion initiative would also establish a right to abortion until birth for undefined “health” reasons. The lawsuit points out that this is a violation of the Nebraska constitutional requirement that voter initiatives only contain one subject.

The lawsuit also lists other misleading language that violates Nebraska’s Single Subject Rule for ballot initiatives. For instance, the “Protect the Right to Abortion” initiative would require that all abortions occur “without interference from the state.” The forthcoming brief will argue that this clause of the initiative would effectively repeal a tremendous number of Nebraska statutes popularly enacted over the last 50 years, such as the state’s dismemberment abortion ban and the parental notification requirement for minors’ abortions. Moreover, laws requiring physician involvement, physician availability for postoperative care, care of born-alive aborted infants, care of post-viability aborted infants, and detailed informed consent requirements, effectively will be repealed if the ballot initiative is accepted by voters.

Additionally, the pro-abortion initiative opens the determination of viability to a large number of non-physician “health care practitioners.” Under current Nebraska law, “health care practitioners” include not only physicians, but also psychiatrists, pharmacists, nurses of varying degrees and many others. The petition filed by Thomas More Society attorneys is seeking a court order requiring Secretary of State Evnen to deny certification of the ballot initiative and withhold it from the ballot, or in the alternative, an order declaring the measure invalid.

Read the Verified Petition for Writ of Mandamus and Declaratory Judgment, filed by Thomas More Society attorneys on behalf of Carolyn LaGreca, in State of Nebraska ex rel. LaGreca v. Evnen, in the Nebraska Supreme Court, here.

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