Nebraska governor indicators 12-week abortion ban, limits on gender-affirming take care of minors

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a invoice Monday that bans abortion at 12 weeks of being pregnant and restricts gender-affirming medical take care of individuals youthful than 19.

The abortion ban takes impact instantly, whereas the ban on gender-affirming care takes impact on Oct. 1.

Nebraska’s conservative-led, unicameral Legislature handed the invoice with the 2 contentious points on Friday after hours of heated debate. Conservative lawmakers wrangled simply sufficient votes to finish a filibuster and approve it. Opponents have promised to sue to try to block the regulation.

The proposal limiting gender-affirming care was the flashpoint of an epic filibuster led by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh. She and a handful of progressive allies slowed the enterprise of passing legal guidelines to a crawl by introducing modification after modification to each invoice that made it to the Senate ground. That despatched management scrambling to prioritize which payments to push by means of.

The hybrid measure tied collectively restrictions that Republicans have pursued throughout the U.S.

North Carolina additionally not too long ago handed a 12-week abortion ban, amongst a slew of restrictions enacted in states after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom final 12 months struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established a nationwide proper to abortion. Fourteen states have permitted an abortion ban all through being pregnant.

Nebraska had not handed a brand new ban because it turned the primary state to restrict abortions round 20 weeks of being pregnant in 2010. The brand new 12-week ban consists of exceptions for rape, incest and to avoid wasting the lifetime of the mom.

The regulation additionally will stop transgender individuals below 19 from receiving any gender-confirming surgical procedure. It additionally restricts the usage of hormone therapies and puberty blockers in minors, placing the state’s chief medical officer — a political appointee who’s an ear, nostril and throat physician — in control of setting the principles for these therapies. In Nebraska, individuals youthful than 19 are thought of minors.

No less than 17 states had already enacted legal guidelines limiting or banning gender-affirming medical take care of minors earlier than Monday, and proposals are pending earlier than the governors of Texas and Missouri. Medical teams and advocates say such restrictions are additional marginalizing transgender youth and threatening their well being.

One Nebraska lawmaker, Omaha state Sen. Megan Hunt, disclosed in March that her teenage son is transgender and stated Friday that she now plans to depart the state.

Supporters stated they’re making an attempt to guard youngsters from making choices they could come to remorse.

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Funk contributed to this story from Omaha, Neb.