Competing measures to expand or limit abortion rights will appear on Nebraska’s November ballot

(AP) — Nebraska voters will choose between two competing abortion measures to either expand abortion rights or limit them to the current 12-week ban — a development likely to drive more voters to the polls in a state that could see one of its five electoral votes up for grabs in the hotly contested presidential race. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced Friday that the rival initiatives each gathered enough signatures to get on the November ballot, making Nebraska the first state to carry competing abortion amendments on the same ballot since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Nebraska also becomes the last of several states to put an abortion measure on the November ballot, including the swing states of Arizona and Nevada where abortion ballot measures could drive higher voter turnout. One of the initiatives, like measures on ballots elsewhere in the U.S., would enshrine in the state constitution the right to have an abortion until viability or later to protect the health of the pregnant woman. It’s possible voters could end up approving both measures, but because they’re competing and therefore cannot both be enshrined in the constitution, the one that gets the most “for” votes will be the one adopted, Evnen said. Evnen’s office said that if both measures are approved by voters, Gov. Asked if there is a scenario in which the Republican governor could order the measure that gets the lesser number of votes to be enshrined in the constitution, Evnen’s office said it didn’t see how that could occur, but added it could not speak for the governor. Asked the same question, Pillen’s office said it would not “comment on a hypothetical future legal issue,” but hedged on ensuring that the measure with the most votes would be written into the state constitution. “The overwhelming majority of Nebraskans support strong constitutional protections for the unborn, so the Governor expects only the pro-life initiative to prevail,” Laura Strimple, a spokeswoman for Pillen, said in an email to The Associated Press. “In any other scenario, the Governor will consult with the Attorney General as to his legal duties.” Most Republican-controlled states have implemented abortion bans of some sort since Roe was overturned, which ended 50 years of the right to abortion across the U.S. That tracks with public opinion polling that has shown growing support for abortion rights, including a recent Associated Press-NORC survey that found 6 in 10 Americans think their state should allow someone to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason. Fourteen states currently have bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions; four ban it after about six weeks, which is before many women know they are pregnant. In Nebraska, abortion could play an outsize role in the Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District for both the U.S. House and presidential races. In the presidential election, increased voter turnout could boost Vice President Kamala Harris to pick off the district’s lone electoral vote. Nebraska is one of two states that splits its electoral votes, and while the state overall is reliably Republican, the Omaha district is competitive. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/513d8bde38f15dee16e9cd216070d704