LINCOLN, Neb.-- After Roe v. Wade was overturned, state bucked national trend and embraced current abortion restrictions.

Last year, Nebraska voters approved putting a ban on abortions after the first trimester into the state constitution, with exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest, instead of adopting a competing proposal that would have left the decision between a woman and her "treating health care practitioner."

It was a unique choice for Nebraska voters, as the only state where voters faced opposing abortion-related proposals in 2024. Nebraska joined two other states, Florida and South Dakota, in rejecting ballot initiatives seeking to expand abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a ruling that governed reproductive rights for nearly half a century.

But an anti-abortion group is trying to push harder with a new ballot initiative for 2026 seeking to ban abortion outright with no exceptions. Choose Life Now is trying again after failing to get enough signatures for a similar ballot initiative in 2024. 

Ballot initiative organizers seeking to amend the Nebraska Constitution must gather signatures from at least 10% of Nebraska voters. The signatures must include 5% of registered voters in at least 38 of the state's 93 counties. 

Back again

Choose Life Now filed its paperwork to collect a new round of signatures in January — the same month as the original Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.

“We do not consider this a political issue but rather a human rights issue,” said David Zebolsky, co-chair of Choose Life Now. 

During its kick-off event, organizers called the ballot initiative a “spiritual battle” to stop the “culture of death” that comes with abortions. The group said it plans to gather signatures with help from churches around the state and other forms of outreach — including a table at the Nebraska State Fair.

“We know that with evangelization and education we will see increasing support,” Zebolsky said. “And with God, anything is possible.” 

The language in the proposed ballot initiative is fairly simple, by design. It says, “A preborn child is a person at every stage of development, beginning at fertilization. Wherever under Nebraska law the term ‘person’ is used or implied, it shall include such a child.” 

The initiative also crosses out the voter-adopted constitutional language limiting legal abortions to the first trimester. 

Zebolsky said the ballot language was crafted in a way that it “would integrate easily into the existing state constitution and legislative statutes and be strong to withstand future legal challenges.”

The Choose Life Now’s quest for a total ban on abortion in Nebraska echoes national Christian advocacy organizations and some Republican members of Congress advocating for a nationwide ban. 

GOP moderating on abortion?

President Donald Trump, on the campaign trail in 2024, vowed to veto any total federal abortion ban, though the Trump administration recently rescinded a Biden-era policy that requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women whose health is in danger, including in states that restrict or ban abortion.

The national GOP has softened its stance on abortion since the Dobbs decision, as bans became unpopular with the public. On the state level, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has said he would prefer a total abortion ban. 

Regardless, political optics don’t matter to those behind the latest ballot initiative, they say, because it is the “right thing” to do. 

“We’re called to do the right thing, in obedience to God,” said Teresa Fondren of Abolish Abortion Nebraska. “We can rely on his providential power to handle the results.” 

Familiar fight

Fondren, continuing a fight that nearly consumed two anti-abortion petition efforts in 2024, said the most significant opposition to the effort for a full abortion ban in Nebraska and in other states has been from “major” pro-life organizations. Advocates for a total ban have criticized Nebraska Right to Life and others for backing the initiative that restricted abortion instead of banning it.

During that 2024 campaign, Nebraska Right to Life and other advocates of putting some abortion restrictions into the constitution over the passage of a competing abortion-rights amendment argued that voters would not accept a total ban and some restrictions were better than none.

Abortion-rights advocates at the time argued that the restrictions amendment put women’s health and bodily autonomy at risk. They gathered signatures for a competing abortion-rights amendment that would’ve legalized abortion later into pregnancies.

Executive Director of Planned Parenthood North Central States Andi Curry Grubb told Omaha NBC affiliate WOWT that Choose Life Now’s renewed effort would fail again, because it does not reflect the values or will of Nebraskans.

“We know a majority of Nebraskans support access to abortion care and the right to make deeply private medical decisions about their bodies and futures,” Grubb said in a statement Wednesday.

Fundraising update

The constitutional amendment banning most abortions after the first trimester was backed by Nebraska Right to Life and Nebraska Family Alliance. Prominent anti-abortion politicians and conservative donors backed the Protect Women and Children campaign behind it, including the family of U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Tom and Shawn Peed, with Sandhills Global. 

Top donors for the failed abortion-rights amendment were former billionaire Michael Bloomberg and University of Nebraska Regent Barbara Weitz of Omaha. 

Typically, over the past decade, a successful petition effort in Nebraska could cost $1.5 million or more to gather signatures and campaign. 

Roughly a year ago, Rose Kohl, a Choose Life Now ballot sponsor, said the group’s effort in 2024 had “limited funding and virtually no paid circulators.”

The anti-abortion group increased its funding by $9,496 last month, according to the latest state campaign finance records. The Choose Life Now campaign now has $11,772 cash on hand. It raised roughly $13,738 for its 2024 effort. 

The group has until next July to gather enough signatures and meet other requirements to get on the November 2026 ballot. 

“It’s on us, the people of God of Nebraska, to rise up and put a stop to it,” Kohl said.

 

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