In Kyle Michaelis' recent diary, "'The Coathanger Caucus': Almost 1/2 Of Senators Support Abortion Ban", we learned (via an AP survey) that almost half of Nebraska's State Senators support a ban on abortion in Nebraska as long as it included exceptions for life of the mother and in cases of incest/rape. To quickly recap the story, 23 of the 49 State Senators (47%) said they support a ban; only five of whom, however, supported removing all abortion rights giving them Kyle's title of "The Coathanger Caucus."
After reading this alarming story, I took the liberty to research what Nebraskans think about abortion.
In 2000, the Omaha World Herald conducted a poll which concluded that 72% of Nebraskans support abortion in Nebraska but are largely open to restrictions. I can not provide a link because the Omaha World Herald does not have free archives.
I then came across this 2005 Survey USA poll which concluded that 49% of Nebraskans are pro-choice, 47% are pro-life, and 4% are undecided. I had two initial reactions to this poll: first, 47% of Nebraskans according to this poll are pro-life and 47% of Nebraska State Senators support an abortion ban; and, second, that being pro-life does not mean you support a ban on abortion.
I dug a little further and found this August 2008 poll by Anzlone Liszt Research on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Nebraska. This poll was framed differently than the 2005 Survey USA poll asking whether the registered Nebraska voter is willing to vote for a pro-choice candidate. 52% of Nebraskans said they were at least likely to support a pro-choice candidate with 36% saying they were not likely to support such a candidate.
So where do Nebraskans actually stand on abortion? I have no idea. But these polls lead me to believe that Nebraskans are split evenly on this controversial issue and, if put to a popular vote similar to South Dakota, I believe abortion rights would be safe.
As the aforementioned AP article states, there is no indication that such a ban will even be introduced during the 2009 session and, it's worth noting, that there are still 26 Senators who either do not support the ban or are up for grabs. Should this ban pass the legislature and be signed into law by Governor Heineman, this fight would likely move to the state Supreme Court and maybe higher up the legal system. Remember, in 2000, the United States Supreme Court voted down Nebraskan's ban on partial-birth abortion.
Furthermore, it is likely that pro-choice groups will seek to move this fight into the hands of the voters by getting a proposition on the ballot. In my opinion, this would be the best way to handle such an important and controversial issue because it's the most Democratic.
(This post can also be found at the New Nebraska Network.)
Red Rogue's Blog
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Just set this up as a central location for all of my blog posts. I'll probably do something with the theme eventually but the basic one is fine for now.
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