An effort to enshrine abortion rights in the Nebraska Constitution is being launched, following on the heels of successful efforts in other red states where Republicans had enacted or sought abortion restrictions.
Protect Our Rights, the coalition behind the effort, submitted proposed petition language to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office late last month.
That language was kept under wraps until Wednesday, when the state’s top elections office released it. Organizers plan to hold a news conference Thursday to kick off the effort, in which they will need to collect around 125,000 valid signatures by next summer to get the measure on the ballot in 2024.
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“We’re confident in this effort, and we’re energized,” said Ashlei Spivey, founder and executive director of I Be Black Girl, an Omaha-based reproductive rights group that makes up part of the coalition. Other members include Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and the Women’s Fund.
The proposed amendment would declare a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability,
