By Mary Kay Roth
Drive by Lincoln’s Planned Parenthood these days and the landscape changes moment to moment. Clients are coming and going, as always, while pro-life demonstrators camp just outside Planned Parenthood property, barely on the other side of a hedge boundary line. Consistently they block the driveway entry, sport generic fake Planned Parenthood vests and attempt to stuff propaganda into anyone confused enough to open a car window. Some bow in prayer. Others scream out vicious taunts, “baby killer,” “you are going to hell.”
Yet tension has heightened even more at Planned Parenthood over past months in the aftermath of a Supreme Court ruling that overturned our constitutional right to abortion. Numbers surged for zealous pro-lifers – who became emboldened, louder, nastier – at the same time, a new group of gutsy pro-choice demonstrators joined the fray, counter protesting with irreverent signs and chants.
Each week the unease intensifies. And the circus is likely to get crazier in January as the Nebraska Legislature convenes with abortion debate looming large. In numerous Republican state legislatures, the fight is no longer whether to ban abortions, but how severely to do so.
I am a volunteer for Planned Parenthood, standing sentry on the other side of the property line. Over the last few years my purpose has been a quiet one, walking women from their cars to the front door – and back – hoping to help them feel safe and welcome, serving as something of a buffer to the onslaught of harassment.
This holiday season, frankly, I am growing weary of watching bullies torment women who simply want to make decisions about their own bodies. So, instead of wrapping up something with a pretty bow, I propose we start making some noise – and show up in the Nebraska Legislature to fight. All I want for Christmas this year – for our daughters, granddaughters, sisters, mothers – is the gift of choice.
“We have a collective story about freedom, the freedom to choose our own destiny,” says Thia Hartley, one of the pro-choice demonstrators. “No one but you can choose how many children you birth or the timing of your pregnancies, whether or not to end a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or to have an abortion to save your life. Someone else’s religion or politics can’t rule our reproductive lives”
Hartley explains her aim is to help reclaim the space co-opted by pro-life demonstrators – to make sure volunteers and clients know they are not alone.
“I’m trying to represent the majority of people who are on the side of reproductive freedom and give them an outlet to make their beliefs known.”
Oddly enough, Republican-dominated Nebraska is now perhaps the nation's most unlikely harbor for abortion services. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, Nebraska, with its Republican governor and state legislature – a state that gave Donald Trump a 19 percent victory over Joe Biden – has emerged as a haven for abortion access.
In fact, since the ruling, Planned Parenthood clinics in Lincoln and Omaha — two of the three in Nebraska that provide abortion services — have seen an increase in the number of people from outside the state seeking support.
As a volunteer I see license plates from conservative states across the Midwest, cars sometimes pulling U-Hauls, others stuffed full of random possessions. And I am overcome with a sense that the Court’s ruling placed the greatest burden on people who need access to health care the most, women with few resources to allow them to travel hundreds of miles from their homes.
“It was the Roe V Wade decision that was the catalyst for my protest actions,” says Judy King, an audacious pro-choice demonstrator who sometimes sports a tutu and dances around people holding pro-life signs –blasts rock-and-roll music to drown out the hecklers.
“As an activist the most beneficial thing I can do to protest the pro-life movement is to show up and not let them own the space out in front of Planned Parenthood,” King explains. “Just showing up gives others the courage to do the same thing. It shows people that you don’t have to be submissive. You can get out there and be brave.”
Last summer, immediately following the Supreme Court ruling, Nebraska Republicans' hopes to fast-track draconian abortion laws were thwarted when Gov. Pete Ricketts opted not to call a special session – when he learned he would fall short of the 33 votes needed for passage.
Such setbacks are odd given the state’s history as a leader in abortion restrictions, enacting the country’s first law banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Currently in Nebraska:
- Abortion is legal up to the 20th week of pregnancy (except in the municipalities of Hayes Center, Blue Hill, Stapleton, Arnold, Paxton, Brady, Hershey and Wallace, where abortion has been outlawed by local ordinance).
- Exceptions that may allow an abortion after that time: To save the pregnant person’s life; to preserve the pregnant person’s physical health.
- Private insurance policies generally cover abortion only in cases of life endangerment.
- If you are under the age of 18, a parent or legal guardian must give you permission.
- A patient must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage the patient from having an abortion, and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.
“My grandfather's first wife died of blood poisoning in 1905 after aborting herself with a crochet needle,” says Mo Neal, a pro-choice demonstrator who helped start the local RuthsForChoice on Facebook and TikTok. “My mother had a back-alley abortion in the early 1940's. She was terrified but so damn lucky she survived intact … Like millions of women, we were furious at the Supreme Court …so we decided to push back.”
Battlelines are definitely drawn at the approach of Jan. 4, opening day for the 2023 session of the Nebraska Legislature – with senators now cradling the future of Nebraskans’ reproductive rights in their arms.
Last spring Gov. Ricketts was crystal clear in his intentions (and most likely those of the incoming governor) to change Nebraska’s state law and prohibit abortions starting at 12 weeks.
Pro-choice advocates are bracing for a fight: “Abortion is still legal in Nebraska. Now, it is our job to hold our elected officials accountable and remind them that Nebraskans are the second house,” proclaims Claire Wiebe, with Planned Parenthood’s North Central States region “When politicians who want to strip away our rights take office in January, Nebraskans will stand up against continued attacks on our health care and reproductive rights.”
State Sen. Megan Hunt has promised to use every tool in the toolbox to stand against any bans in Nebraska … “and make sure that we keep the government out of the conversation between a patient and their doctor. But, Nebraskans, we really need you to be here at the Capitol physically, to make sure that these senators’ phones are ringing off the hook, to make sure that anybody who wants to enact a full ban on abortion in Nebraska understands where the people of Nebraska are coming from.”
If, in fact, the Legislature does further restrict women's access to abortion, the road ahead would be challenging. A statewide initiative could be used to enact or amend a law, or to amend the state constitution, but would require a petition drive to place it on the ballot. In addition, statewide initiatives can only be placed on the ballot at the “general election in November in even-numbered years,” which means November 2024 is the earliest all Nebraskans could actually vote on this issue.
“I remind people to stand up and shout for freedom of reproductive choice,” Hartley says. “We can vote, write our state senator, governor, other politicians, talk to family and friends, protest, counter protest, make reproductive rights a discussion in our own churches and social circles. We are about to face a fight this legislative session to keep reproductive freedom in Nebraska. It would be a damn shame if we lost it for ourselves and especially for future generations. The only way we can lose it is to let it slip away.”
Rest assured, I will continue to join volunteers at Planned Parenthood every week, standing guard and standing vigil. I ask you to join me this holiday season and pledge to keep watch and speak out at the upcoming Legislative session.
Wishing you all, peace on Earth, good will to … women.
