Women Athletes Fight Nebraska’s Pro-Abortion Measure 439

Protect Women and Children on Monday released two new ads to encourage Nebraskans to vote on two major abortion initiatives on the state’s November ballot.

The ads are in favor of the pro-life Initiative 434 and against the pro-abortion Initiative 439.

The 30-second and 60-second ads feature female athletes from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: UNL volleyball star Rebekah Allick, a Catholic, and UNL softball players Malia Thomas, Hannah Camenzind, Lauren Camenzind, Jordyn Bahl, and Abbie Squier. The athletes shared their thoughts on the initiatives.

“With out-of-state activists lying about the radical Initiative 439, my teammates and I knew it was time to get off the bench and tell the truth about how 439 would harm Nebraska women and children,” says Jordyn Bahl. “Nebraskans should vote for 4 and no on 9 to protect Nebraska women and children.”

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“Initiative 439 is dangerous,” says Rebekah Allick. “439 forces taxpayer funding of abortion, places women’s care in the hands of non-physicians, and puts Nebraska women at risk. 434 defends women from abuse, trafficking, and coercion. Nebraskans should vote for 434 and no on 439.”

Initiative 434 would seek to amend the Constitution of Nebraska to include a clause on abortion:

Except when a woman seeks an abortion necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest, unborn children shall be protected from abortion in the second and third trimesters.

The initiative indicates that general abortions in the first trimester are legal, but illegal in the second and third trimesters. A vote in favor of 434 would retain Nebraska’s law that protects unborn children after 12 weeks of gestation and would also keep parental notification in place for minors seeking abortions.

Pro-life groups have contended that

Initiative 434, Protect Women and Children, provides common sense, scientific, and safe measures put forward by medical professionals. The initiative safeguards a woman’s health and safety and provides exceptions for extreme cases like rape, incest, medical emergencies, and life of the mother and provides commonsense protections in the second and third trimester. The use of established scientific terms sets clear parameters for women and their physicians, and avoids political interference through vague terminology. Protect Women and Children upholds current health and safety standards and ensures only licensed physicians will treat and care for women in their most vulnerable moments. Parents’ rights to protect the well-being of their minor/young daughters are safeguarded by maintaining parental notification.

Initiative 439 seeks to establish a fundamental right to abortion in Nebraska:

All persons shall have a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient, without interference from the state or its political subdivisions. Fetal viability means the point in pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the patient’s treating health care practitioner, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

A vote in favor of initiative 439 would leave unborn children unprotected from abortions in the second trimester, or up until a healthcare provider believes a baby is able to survive outside the womb without medical help. 439 would also remove parental notification for minors.

Pro-life groups have argued that

Initiative 439 subjects women and medical professionals to vague, unscientific standards, putting courts in the middle of the doctor-patient relationship. The initiative dangerously allows unlicensed individuals – instead of licensed physicians – to make medical judgements for a woman in a critical situation. The initiative creates a new constitutional right to abortion for “all persons,” not just women, leaving women and young girls vulnerable to abortions against their will by perpetrators of abuse. The initiative also eliminates parental notification protections, enabling abusers and allowing human traffickers to prey on victims by forcing abortions without parents or law enforcement being notified. It also forces Nebraska taxpayers to fund abortion. Vague and misleading language is dangerous and deceptive for women and children.

“Get in the game, vote for initiative 434 and no on 439,” the athletes state in the ads. “For four, and no on nine.”

LifeNews Note:Elizabeth Kidney writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

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