Nebraska ballot can include competing measures to expand or limit abortion rights

NEBRASKA -- The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that competing measures that would expand or limit abortion rights can appear on the November ballot. 

The High Court's ruling came days after it heard arguments in three lawsuits that sought to keep one or both of the state's competing abortion initiatives off the November ballot. 

Organizers for the competing measures each turned in well over the 123,000 required valid signatures needed to get them on the ballot.

One initiative would enshrine in the Nebraska Constitution the right to have an abortion until viability, or later to protect the health of the pregnant woman. 

The other would write into the Constitution Nebraska's current 12-week abortion ban, passed by the legislature in 2023, which includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the pregnant woman. 

Meanwhile, the State Supreme Court has also ruled that a measure seeking to repeal a new conservative-backed law that provides taxpayer money for private school tuition should appear on the state's November ballot. 

The court found that the ballot measure does not target an appropriation, which is prohibited by law. 

The ruling came just days after the State's High Court heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by an eastern Nebraska woman whose child received one of the first private school tuition scholarships available through the new law. 

The Supreme Court also ordered Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen to keep the measure on the ballot. 

That after Evnen submitted an eleventh-hour brief to the high court saying he made a mistake and intended to rescind his certification. 

But Chief Justice Michael Heavican wrote Friday that there is no process by which the Secretary of State can change his mind.