Co-sponsor of Nebraska abortion bill has second thoughts, proposes 12-week ban

LINCOLN — A co-sponsor of a bill that would ban most abortions in Nebraska said he had “signer’s remorse” in voting the bill out of committee earlier this year.

State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston introduced an amendment Wednesday to Legislative Bill 626, dubbed the “Nebraska Heartbeat Act.” The bill would ban most abortions once embryonic cardiac activity can be detected via ultrasound, which typically happens around six weeks of pregnancy.

Nebraska currently bans abortions at 20 weeks past fertilization. Riepe’s amendment would set that cutoff at 12 weeks.

“I’ve spoken with some other senators, who will remain nameless, who said they think a 12-week (ban) is more reasonable, more acceptable,” Riepe said.

A 12-week ban was put forward by then-Speaker Mike Hilgers last summer as the subject of a proposed special legislative session after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision in June.

Thirty senators — nearly all Republicans, as well as Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell, a Democrat — signed a letter supporting Hilgers’ proposal last August. Backers needed 33 lawmakers to pass the legislation, and then Gov. Pete Ricketts decided against calling the special session.

Riepe, a Republican who replaced Sen. Steve Lathrop, a Democrat who chose not to seek reelection last year, said 23 senators who supported that measure returned to the Legislature this year along with 13 new senators who support increased restrictions on abortion, but the 12-week proposal did not resurface.

Instead, senators were asked to sign onto LB 626 before it was introduced in January, Riepe said, and while he supported it, he said he and others have come to view the legislation as “tantamount to a total ban.”

Opponents have argued as much, noting that most women don’t realize they are pregnant prior to six weeks and those who do would have little time to decide whether to terminate their pregnancy.

Riepe’s amendment would more than double that amount of time.

He said women who have irregular menstrual cycles might learn they are pregnant after the six-week restriction now being proposed. Those who do might not have the resources to seek abortion care in other states where abortion remains legal, he added.

“And I don’t want women to, out of desperation, seek to self-abort, or quite frankly, do-self harm because of being so distraught,” he said.

Riepe’s amendment does not include any exceptions for rape or incest, and would subject doctors who perform abortions after 12 weeks to possible criminal penalties, however.

Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, who introduced LB 626 and made it her priority bill, said she did not support Riepe’s amendment and will continue to push the “heartbeat” legislation as passed out of the committee.

The bill advanced from the Health and Human Services Committee on a 4-2 vote but has not been scheduled for debate. It already had a narrow path to passage in the Legislature before Riepe introduced his amendment.

Last year, a trigger bill that would have banned abortions if the Supreme Court overturned Roe fell to a filibuster late in the 60-day session.

Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt, who with others has filed dozens of amendments and motions in an attempt to stop LB 626 from advancing, believes Riepe’s amendment signals regret.

“I think he knows it’s an extreme ban,” Hunt said.

Riepe said while his thinking on the bill has changed — “frankly, it’s not a federal offense to withdraw (support)” — he doesn’t plan to remove his name from LB 626 and said if the bill advances to the second round of consideration, his amendment proposing a 12-week ban could come up for debate.

“I want to discuss a 12-week versus what I call a six-week,” he said. “That’s my bottom line.”