LINCOLN- U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts appears to be bankrolling a conservative ballot effort to enshrine a roughly 13-week abortion ban in the state constitution. Ricketts gave $500,000 to the effort, and was the only named donor in the first campaign finance report that the group Protect Women and Children filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission.

Ricketts has, in the past, supported other efforts to put conservative measures on the ballot, including the 2015 effort to restore Nebraska's death penalty, an endeavor largely funded by the Ricketts family. "Nebraska's commonsense abortion limits reflect our state's strong culture of life," Ricketts said in a statement, "I support the Protect Women and Children ballot initiative because it protects Nebraska values and is a contrast to the extreme initiative the abortion lobby is pushing."

Andi Curry Grubb of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska, speaking on behalf of Protect Our Rights, said in response that "decisions about pregnancy and abortion belong to Nebraskans, not politicians." The competing ballot initiative sought by Protect Our Rights would make abortion legal up until the time of fetal viability, when a fetus can live outside the womb. That is typically at 22-24 weeks.

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