A Nebraska law that combines abortion restrictions with limits on gender-affirming health care for minors does not violate the state constitutional amendment requiring bills to address a single subject, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled on Friday.
The court acknowledged that abortion and gender-affirming care are “distinct types of medical care,” but determined that the law does not breach Nebraska’s single-subject rule because both issues fall under the broader category of medical care.
This decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The ACLU argued that the hybrid law, passed last year, violated Nebraska’s single-subject rule. However, the high court rejected these arguments.
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Originally, Republican lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature had proposed separate bills: an abortion ban at approximately six weeks of pregnancy and a bill restricting gender-affirming treatment for minors.
After the six-week abortion ban failed to overcome a filibuster, the GOP-dominated Legislature added a 12-week abortion ban to the existing gender-affirming care bill. This combined law became the most controversial legislation of the 2023 session, prompting an epic filibuster by a handful of lawmakers who sought to block every bill for the session’s duration in an effort to stop the combined law.
A district judge dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit last August, leading to the appeal.
During arguments before the high court in March, a state attorney contended that the combined abortion and transgender care measures did not violate the single-subject rule, as both pertain to health care. In contrast, an attorney for Planned Parenthood argued that the Legislature had initially recognized abortion and transgender care as separate subjects by introducing them as distinct bills. The Legislature “pushed them together only when it was constrained to do so,” ACLU attorney Matt Segal argued.
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At least 25 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, many of which are facing legal challenges. Federal judges have struck down similar bans in Arkansas and Florida as unconstitutional, while judges’ orders are temporarily blocking enforcement of the bans in Montana and aspects of the ban in Georgia.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have enforced new bans or restrictions, while most Democrat-dominated states have moved to protect abortion access.
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