Voters in Nebraska will have a choice between two competing abortion measures

A pro-life sign is seen on a roadside in Agnew, Nebraska, on May 14, 2024. / Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

In an election year in which a record number of states with pro-abortion measures are on the ballot, Nebraska is the only state to have a pro-abortion ballot measure competing with a pro-life measure. 

Chelsey Youman, with Human Coalition Action, a national pro-life group based in Texas, on “EWTN News In Depth” recently said that amid a “disinformation” campaign, Nebraska is “fighting back.”

“Nebraska is taking a unique approach to this issue and fighting back, saying that we’re not going to accept the pro-abortion industry’s rampant push of extreme constitutional measures to allow abortion on demand without limits throughout the entire pregnancy, all three trimesters,” Youman told “EWTN News In Depth” host Catherine Hadro on Oct. 18.

Nebraska’s ballot measure 439 would create a constitutional right to abortion, while measure 434 would establish constitutional protections for unborn children in later stages of pregnancy. 

Tom Venzor, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, called the pro-abortion measure “worse than Roe v. Wade.”

“Initiative 439 is a very extreme proposal that allows abortions throughout the entire pregnancy,” Venzor continued. “Alternatively, you have Initiative 434, which provides some protection in the second and third trimester for the unborn child but then allows us to continue regulating against unsafe and coercive abortion practices.”

Dr. Catherine Brooks, a neonatologist and pediatrician in Lincoln, Nebraska, noted that fetal viability does not have a set definition in the medical community.

“When they talk about it on the political front, it’s often assumed that there’s a definition of viability, and there just isn’t,” Brooks told “EWTN News In Depth” reporter Mark Irons.

Measure 439 creates a right to abortion up until fetal viability, which it defines as whenever the patient’s health practitioner determines that “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”

Tremendous progress has been made in recent years, increasing the likelihood of survival for the tiniest premature babies. For instance, Curtis Zy-Keith Means was born at 21 weeks’ gestation and weighed less than a pound. He holds the Guinness World Record for the youngest premature baby to survive and turned 4 this summer. 

But viability is often defined to be between 24 and 26 weeks. 

Brooks works in the neonatal intensive care unit, caring for premature babies who need additional support before they leave the hospital. She said she noticed “their personalities are all so unique.”

Venzor’s daughter Therese was born three months premature. She lived for only two weeks. 

“My personal experience is those two weeks were beautiful,” Venzor said. “They were wonderful.”

“We never knew if we were going to get one second with her,” he recalled. “We didn’t know if when she was delivered, she was going to make it. To have any amount of time with her was precious, not only in the womb but outside of the womb, and to look at her, to see her face. It taught us how to love more deeply. She taught us how to love.”

Nebraska’s pro-abortion measure also creates a right to abortion after the baby is viable outside the womb “when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient, without interference from the state or its political subdivisions,” according to the text of the ballot measure.

“I think 439 is vague intentionally, and that’s so that people don’t understand what it’s saying,” Brooks said. “But from a medical perspective and a legal perspective, it’s allowing abortion at any gestation for any reason.”

Youman noted that Nebrasa’s pro-life measure is a unique opportunity for voters in the U.S. this year. 

“They’re giving voters another option, an option to say: We’re going to vote to protect children past the 12-week mark but also, importantly, allow the legislator there in Nebraska to continue to protect children in the womb before 12 weeks,” Youman said of the measure.

“The pro-life vote is alive and well,” Youman said, even though there is “a massive campaign of misleading disinformation” and “fear-mongering” around abortion ballot measures. 

“It took the pro-abortionists seven months to get the requisite amount of 200,000 signatures. It took the pro-lifers only three months to get the same amount of signatures,” Youman said. “So don’t always believe the polling. Don’t always believe what mass media is telling you. The pro-life vote is alive and well and active like it never had been. Now is that time for us to lean in more than ever.”

Youman noted that there is misinformation about medical emergencies and abortion. 

For instance, in September, Vice President Kamala Harris amplified claims by several news outlets that a woman died as the result of pro-life laws, while a group of doctors responded that the Georgia woman, Amber Thurman, died because of the abortion pill and medical malpractice. 

“The truth is, in pro-life states, all 50 states protect women from medical emergencies,” Youman said. “That’s not only a Supreme Court requirement but at the state level of statutory requirements.” 

Youman said that having conversations about these issues is essential and that voting “on these issues in these states will be the loudest thing we can do to send that message to protect the unborn.”

“The longer that we have these conversations at the grassroots, at the church level, at the local level, with our families and communities, the more people realize the value of innocent human life, and the more people realize how extreme these measures are,” Youman said.

“This election, more than ever, as pro-life voters, we need to show up and tell them we will not stand for a country that aborts innocent children in the womb,” Youman said. “We will vote for pro-life measures, and we want to hold our candidates accountable to protecting innocent life in the womb.”