LINCOLN- In the final days of the 2023 legislative session, abortion rights have been reintroduced to the body. On Monday afternoon, an abortion-related amendment to the bill that would ban gender-affirming procedures for minors was unveiled. The amendment would provide for a 12-week ban on abortion. Sen. Megan Hunt said that pairing together “the two most explosive bills” of the 2023 session would cause even more friction in a session overflowing with it.

LB626 failed two weeks ago after failing to overcome a filibuster by a lone vote. In the days following the defeat of LB626, there have been multiple backroom discussions about whether a less-restrictive abortion ban — something like the 12-week ban introduced by State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston — might be resurrected for debate. Those discussions led to an amendment called the “Preborn Child Protection Act."

The idea is that pairing the two measures into LB574, and making them less extreme, might bring enough support so that both could pass in the waning of the 2023 session. The new abortion segment of the bill includes exception language from the original LB 626 for rape, incest and life of the mother. State senators, as well as Gov. Jim Pillen — an opponent of abortion rights — were involved in crafting the compromise proposal. The pairing may violate the Nebraska Legislature's 'single subject rule,' which prohibits bills of two different topics from being passed together.

On Wednesday, Speaker of the Legislature John Arch announced that LB574 would be up for debate next Tuesday. However, because the bill is on its final round of debate before passage, it would need to be pulled back in order to have amendments attached to it. Thus far, it is unclear if such action will be taken. Such a move would require the bill to go through two more rounds of debate and filibuster, as well as a consistent 33 votes to invoke cloture and move the bill forward.

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