In January, 20 Nebraska lawmakers commemorated the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says the Constitution protects a pregnant person’s freedom to choose abortion care, by introducing LB 781. It’s a bill to ban all abortions in the state after just six weeks, before most women even know they’re pregnant.
Nebraska policymakers will also likely ban all abortions if Roe is overturned later this year by attempting to pass a trigger ban (LB 933), also introduced this year.
A recent poll showed that 50% of Nebraskans say abortion should be legal, which indicates that anti-choice legislation goes against at least half of residents’ beliefs. In addition to having laws reflect what residents want, there’s an economic imperative for allowing access to abortions.
Most of us have heard about how the pandemic disproportionately impacted women in the workforce. A staggering 4.2 million women across the country had to leave the workforce — a full million more women than men — setting women’s labor force participation back more than 30 years. That was because of two key factors: First, unlike previous recessions, this one had layoffs in sectors that were more likely to employ women.
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In addition, women have had disproportionate caretaking responsibilities while schools, day cares and senior centers were closed. Research suggests that women’s employment will not recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, and even “recovering” to that level means Nebraska women being paid just 78% of what men are paid with an even bigger wage gap for women of color and LGBTQ individuals.
As someone who tracks women’s economic mobility, we also know that forcing pregnancy and childbirth traps women and their families in generations of poverty. Even if a woman who is denied an abortion then places the baby for adoption, she still has a massive labor and delivery hospital bill to contend with, which in Nebraska averages $8,805.
Abortion bans, which force women to give birth or have an unsafe abortion, can be emotionally traumatic, financially ruinous and physically dangerous. The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate of the world’s developed nations, a frightening number that has actually been increasing over the last 20 years, and leads to the deaths of 700 pregnant people each year.
While the majority of people who have an abortion already have one or more children, the most common reason for choosing an abortion is not being able to afford having a child (the federal government estimates the average cost of raising a child is over $233,000). Research shows that when a person wants to end a pregnancy but is denied that choice, they are more likely to end up living in poverty, having a hard time affording basic needs like rent and groceries, than someone who was able to get an abortion. The relationship is clear between abortion bans and more families trapped in poverty.
And let’s face it: women in the U.S. with financial means — usually white women — have always been able to access safe abortions, regardless of the law. Roe just leveled the playing field so that women of color and lower-income women could have safe abortions too. Our laws must strive to serve our community with fair systems that promote equity for all of us, not just for the privileged few.
Never before have Roe’s protections in Nebraska been so endangered — and never before have they been this necessary and urgent.
If we really care about the lives and welfare of Nebraska’s women and children, we need to ensure women have the economic freedom that men do — and that depends on being able to control their own decisions about their bodies.
Midlands Voices January 2022
Darryl Brown Jr. writes: "Nuance belongs in the conversation around abortion; our faith does not always require an 'either/or' mentality."
Gov. Pete Ricketts writes: "State law declares 'the will of the people of the State of Nebraska and the members of the Legislature to provide protection for the life of the unborn child whenever possible."
Gwenn Aspen writes: Will a candidate be a leader who will stand with voters, or will they stand with authoritarians?
David G. Brown writes: "The City of Omaha has taken a giant step forward in providing new dynamic infrastructure that will bring more people, companies and jobs to the very heart of our community."
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would be felt throughout the world, directly threatening Poland and the Baltic States and unsettling global economies.
Ron Jensen writes: "I have no doubt that the political parties would like to have more to say about who serves in our Legislature, as well as what they do when they get there. But Nebraskans have only to look at the U.S. Congress to understand how well that would serve the public interest."
Rebecca Fahrlander writes: "Chain letters, like today's social media chain posts, usually involved some concern or superstition around fate, bad fortune, illness, etc. Breaking the chain could bring bad luck. They were fake before we had fake news."
Andi Curry Grubb writes: "Those who strongly oppose abortion have spread misinformation, creating harmful stigma and shaming people who have had abortions into silence. This has left a vacuum that the vocal minority has used to push its narrow, ideological agenda against abortion to the tipping point."
Polling shows strong support for conservation easements in Nebraska.
State. Sen. Steve Lathrop writes that dealing with incarceration growth "will take a new approach to criminal justice using strategies that can actually reduce recidivism, protect public safety and rein in prison growth."
Nationally, other states are doing a better job of protecting their children than Nebraskans are. This must change.
he mandate enacted by Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse is an absolutely necessary measure; however, it is important to emphasize that masks are only one part of the solution.
State Sen. Tom Brewer and John R. Lott Jr. write: "Much will remain unchanged with constitutional carry. Businesses and private property owners still have the right to exclude guns from their premises. Prohibitions remain in sensitive places, and laws about gun misuse are unchanged. Nebraskans must still be able to legally own a gun to carry it."
"Colorado’s plans to siphon off water from the South Platte River would decrease agricultural water supplies and raise pumping costs for our residents," Gov. Pete Ricketts writes.
State Sen. John McCollister writes: "Republican voters have been so pumped full of lies from conservative talk radio, Fox News and conspiracy outlets like OANN, that any law is then seen as some draconian overreach of government power."
The RNC could act as a barrier to the Cult of Trump and set the party on a sane and responsible course. But it hasn’t, and probably won’t.
But it has happened before.
Vaccines continue to remain the No. 1 preventative measure to combat COVID. We need every eligible Nebraskan to get fully vaccinated and boosted to protect each other.
Madison Kinkaid writes: "As the world continues to warm, we look to new energy sources to fuel our needs."
Dr. Jeffrey P. Gold writes: "Based on recent GCHS success in leveraging investments to receive competitive grants and contracts, an independent outside economic impact projection shows that the state’s one-time investment would create 220 high-wage, high-skill, high-demand jobs statewide."
While the role of Omaha may have been brief, its status as a gateway to the west and pivotal role in providing the logistical support made its contribution critical to the success of the hunt.
State Sen. Mike Flood says he hopes to advance further pro-life legislation during the 2022 legislative session.
Pat Loontjer writes: "The economic impact and jobs casinos claim are not in addition to existing local economic activity but in place of it. Gambling dollars do not drop from the sky. They come from local gamblers whose spending patterns change when slot machines move in, at the expense of local business receipts."
The last two years have taught us that we don’t have the luxury of working in silos any longer.
Kenneth Keith writes: "We once again have the opportunity to rise to the occasion, to come together in the face of adversity."
Gov. Pete Ricketts: "On behalf of all Nebraskans, thank you to members of the Nebraska National Guard for your dedicated service to our state."
Today, our state and our nation both face pressing needs for which the University of Nebraska at Omaha is in a strategic position to provide solutions.
State Sen. Megan Hunt plans to introduce legislation removing Nebraska's legal hurdles to abortion.
