Abortion-related ads in Nebraska prompt health department alert

Two abortion measures are on the Nebraska ballot. Its health department issued an alert suggesting that ads about Nebraska's abortion law had created “confusion.”

Just a week before an election in which Nebraska voters will decide on two competing ballot initiatives related to abortion rights, the state health department sent doctors an alert about what it called "misleading information" in radio and TV ads.

Nebraska’s chief medical officer, Dr. Timothy Tesmer, wrote in the alert that recent ads had generated confusion about Nebraska’s law restricting abortions after 12 weeks’ gestation, though he did not specify which ads.

He listed some exceptions to the policy, among them that Nebraska law does not prohibit removal of an ectopic pregnancy. Abortions in the state are allowed in cases of rape or incest, the advisory said, and when there is a threat to a woman’s life or a risk of irreversible harm to a major bodily function.

Nebraska’s two abortion-related ballot measures are called Initiative 439 and Initiative 434. Initiative 439 would allow abortions until fetal viability — usually around 22 to 24 weeks, though it does not specify a gestational age — or when needed to protect a pregnant person’s life or health. 

Initiative 434, meanwhile, would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortion in the second and third trimesters — in other words, after 12 weeks — with some exceptions. It is supported by Nebraska Right to Life, an anti-abortion-rights group. Nebraska already prohibits most abortions after 12 weeks, so the measure would not cause major changes at the ground level. But if it is passed, it might make it harder to challenge the state’s abortion law and could open the door for further restrictions.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/abortion-ads-nebraska-health-alert-controversy-rcna177845

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