Proposed Nebraska Bill Would Ban Abortions After 20 Weeks Of Pregnancy

ABC News reports that "Nebraska legislators are proposing a bill on abortion that, if passed, would be the strictest in the nation and would ban most abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy. The first public hearing on the so-called Abortion Pain Prevention Act today drew a crowd of 100, and medical and legal experts from as far away as New York City, Alaska and Boston. The Nebraska legislature's judiciary committee adjourned without taking action and will now discuss the bill in executive session, where the bill could be amended, tabled or passed on to Nebraska's full one-house legislature... The proposed bill would ban abortions after fetuses reach 20 weeks, rather than the current limit that falls around 24 weeks. The only exception on the 20-week limit is if the procedure would "avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function" or save the pregnant woman's life... The bill also specifies only physical health concerns as acceptable reasons for an abortion after the 20-week limit. That would put into place the narrowest health exception in the nation, as mental health isn't included. Interpretation of current law allows for mental health exceptions."

Before all the pro-abortion acitivists get all riled up, all must realize that 20 weeks is five months of pregnancy. Is limiting abortions to within five months of pregnancy really unreasonable? If woman are to decide to abort, does the first five months of pregnancy not allow for enough time for the decision to be made?

Much might be made about the changes in health exceptions. The concern of the legislature of Nebraska, however, is that the "mental health" exceptions can essentially allow for all abortions for any reason, as all one needs to do is show that delivering the baby would be detrimental to a very broad category of "mental health." Why can't the Nebraska legislature eliminate this exception if they feel it is simply an excuse for all sorts of abortions?

Some might cite Roe v. Wade or Planned Parenthood v. Casey and assert that the Constitution protects the right to abortion after 20 weeks. Regardless of whether the specific Supreme Court precedents supports this claim, the fact of the matter is that the Supreme Court itself is liable for the worst sort of unconstitutional interpretation of the fundamental law in the abortion cases to begin with. Even Justice Potter Stewart in his concurrence in Roe v. Wade said that "[t]he asserted state interests are protection of the health and safety of the pregnant woman, and protection of the potential future human life within her. These are legitimate objectives, amply sufficient to permit a State to regulate abortions as it does other surgical procedures, and perhaps sufficient to permit a State to regulate abortions more stringently, or even to prohibit them in the late stages of pregnancy." More importantly, in his dissent, Justice William Rehnquist pointed out the obvious, that the Supreme Court "necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Amendment... There apparently was no question concerning the validity of this provision or of any of the other state statutes when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted. The only conclusion possible from this history is that the drafters did not intend to have the Fourteenth Amendment withdraw from the States the power to legislate with respect to this matter." Given the fact that the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution in such a nonsensical fashion, why should the State of Nebraska not pass its law and let the legal battle stand for another day?

This bill is both good policy, and good law, and for that reason the legislature of Nebraska should certainly enact it into law. Tweet