The Nebraska Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state law banning gender-affirming care for minors and abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, ruling that the two issues could legally be combined.
The abortion ban was added as an amendment to House Bill 574, which would restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, in the final days of Nebraska’s legislative session last year.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), challenged the law as a violation of a constitutional amendment that requires bills to be limited to a single subject.
But the state’s highest court said that while abortion and gender-affirming care are “distinct types of medical care,” the law itself broadly encompasses the “regulation of permissible medical care.”
In a stinging partial dissent, Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman said she did not believe that abortion and gender-affirming care constitute “an issue,” and said the majority gave deference to the Legislature “at the expense of the Constitution.”
“Unrelated provisions that do similar things at some level of generality do not dispel the criticism that the bill contains more than one subject matter,” Miller-Lerman wrote, adding that it is not the court’s role to “examine the bill in detail.” hope of finding a subject that can explain the inclusion of very different acts in one bill.”
Last year, Republican lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature originally proposed two separate bills. One would have banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy and another would have restricted gender-affirming treatment for minors.
But the six-week ban failed to overcome the filibuster by a single vote, so the GOP-dominated Legislature added the 12-week abortion ban as an amendment to the transgender ban.
A district judge dismissed the suit last August, and the ACLU appealed.
Ruth Richardson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, said the state’s clinics “will proudly continue to provide abortion care up to 12 weeks, and we remain dedicated to helping our patients in Nebraska access the care they so desperately need.” even if it means having to travel out of state.”
But voters could have the final say. Two competing questions on the issue are likely to appear on the November ballot: One would add the right to abortion to the state constitution, while the other would enshrine a 12-week ban.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
