OMAHA, Neb. – A Nebraska law that combined abortion restrictions with another measure to limit gender-affirming health care for minors does not violate a state constitutional amendment that requires bills to be limited to a single subject, the Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled. on Friday.
The state’s high court acknowledged in its ruling that abortion and gender-affirming care “are distinct types of medical care,” but the law does not violate Nebraska’s single-subject rule because both abortion and transgender health care are covered. on the topic of medical care.
The decision came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, representing Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The high court rejected arguments from ACLU lawyers who argued that the hybrid law passed last year violates Nebraska’s single-subject rule.
Republican lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature originally proposed separate bills: an abortion ban around six weeks pregnant and a bill restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors. The Legislature dominated by the Republican Party added a 12-week abortion ban to the existing gender-affirming care bill only after the six-week ban failed to defeat a filibuster.
The combined law was the most controversial in the Nebraska Legislature in the 2023 session, and its gender-affirming care restrictions triggered an epic obstruction in which a handful of lawmakers attempted to block every bill during that session – even those they supported – in an effort to stop him.
A district judge dismissed the case last August, and the ACLU appealed.
In arguments before the high court in March, a lawyer for the state insisted that the combined abortion and transgender care measures did not violate the state’s single-subject rule because they both fall under the umbrella of health care.
But a lawyer for Planned Parenthood argued that the Legislature recognized abortion and transgender care as separate issues, introducing them as separate bills at the start of last year’s session.
“It brought them together only when it was forced to do so,” argued ACLU attorney Matt Segal.
At least 25 states have adopted laws restricting or prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of these states face lawsuits. Federal judges found the bans in Arkansas and Florida unconstitutional. Judges’ orders are in effect temporarily blocking enforcement of the ban in Montana and aspects of the ban in Georgia.
Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, ending the national right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have begun imposing new bans or restrictions, and most Democratic-dominated states have sought to protect access to abortion.
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