LINCOLN, Nebraska (LifeSiteNews) – After eight hours of debate on Wednesday, the Nebraska legislature failed to pass a pro-life “trigger” law that would have banned abortions in the Cornhusker State were Roe v. Wade to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Even though a majority of the legislature supported the bill, it failed to obtain the 33 votes needed to overcome the filibuster that blocked a vote on the bill, falling short by two votes in a 31-15 result.
The bill, LB 933, called “The Human Life Protection Act” was introduced by State Sens. Joni Albrecht and Mike Flood. It had 23 cosponsors and was hailed by the Nebraska Family Alliance, a pro-life advocacy group, as “the biggest pro-life bill in Nebraska.”
“We envision a Nebraska where every life is cherished, valued, and protected,” the Nebraska Family Alliance declared in support of the bill.
“We’re not going to kill babies in Nebraska anymore,” Albrecht said. “We’re going to take care of them. No one should have the right to kill an unborn child that doesn’t have a voice.”
Flood declared Nebraska is a “pro-life state,” and that LB 933 was the next logical step after the 2010 bill he sponsored, banning abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. Nebraska was the first state to enact such a ban. In 2020, it outlawed brutal dismemberment abortion.
Thirteen states have enacted “trigger” laws that would make abortion illegal upon a Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade, which pro-life advocates are hoping will come in just a few months with the ruling on the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
As LifeSiteNews reported Wednesday, the Oklahoma House passed Tuesday a “Life at Conception” bill similar to that debated in Nebraska. Oklahoma’s bill will make all abortions illegal except for those performed to save the life of the mother should Roe v. Wade be overturned.
Family Research Council has published a map of the U.S. according to the various degrees of legal protection for the unborn upon an overturning of Roe v. Wade.