Nebraska Abortion Rights Ballot Measure Fails After Insane Anti-Abortion Campaign

Two abortion-related ballot measures—one to codify a right to abortion in the state Constitution, and one to codify an abortion ban—went head-to-head. The anti-abortion measure triumphed, benefiting from the incredibly confusing set-up.

By Kylie Cheung | November 6, 2024 | 5:38pm

Photo: Getty Images Abortion Politics 2024 Election

Nebraska Abortion Rights Ballot Measure Fails After Insane Anti-Abortion Campaign

Since 2023, Nebraska has banned abortion at 12 weeks. On Tuesday, voters rejected Initiative 439, a ballot measure to enshrine a right to abortion in the state Constitution and repeal the current ban. Initiative 439 competed with Initiative 434, which would codify a 12-week abortion ban with only narrow exceptions into the state Constitution. The anti-abortion Initiative 434 received 55.3% of the vote while 439 received 48.8%. Clearly, a decisive plurality of Nebraskans support abortion rights—but not enough to overcome the massive barriers enacted by anti-abortion activists.

“Nebraskans on all sides stand with abortion rights – but knowing they couldn’t win on the issue outright, extremist anti-abortion forces pushed through a competing ballot measure designed to manipulate voters,” Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a national ballot measure organization that backed Nebraska’s abortion rights measure, said in a statement.

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In August, the Nebraska secretary of state certified both ballot measures. To succeed, a ballot measure needs a simple majority of the vote and at least 35% of the total votes cast in the election. If both abortion-related ballot measures succeed at this, the one with more votes is the winner. This created an incredibly dumb, incredibly confusing hurdle for the abortion rights measure to clear after already facing a bonkers anti-abortion disinformation campaign to even qualify for the ballot. On top of this confusing set-up, the anti-abortion measure also may have benefited from incredibly deceptive framing. The abortion rights measure is called “Protect the Right to Abortion,” but the anti-abortion measure misleadingly called itself “Protect Women and Children.”

In July, voters and abortion rights activists claimed that the anti-abortion Protect Women & Children campaign lied to voters and said that their ballot measure is “pro-choice,” in order to trick people into signing. (This is similar to tactics we saw from anti-abortion activists in Kansas to try to defeat an abortion rights ballot measure in 2022.) The Nebraska Examiner reported at the time that the secretary of state’s office received at least 348 signed affidavits requesting the removal of signatures from abortion-related measures; just 12 of the affidavits concerned the abortion rights measure, while the rest concerned the anti-abortion initiative. Out of the over 200,000 signatures the anti-abortion campaign submitted, it’s ultimately unclear how many signed it because they thought it was “pro-choice” or protected a right to abortion, as its name implies.

“Even in the face of the opposition’s unrelenting interference with the ballot measure process, an extraordinary number of Nebraska voters stood up against their state’s dangerous abortion ban,” Hall said.

There’s clearly strong support for abortion rights, even in a deep-red state like Nebraska. But the anti-abortion movement subsists off of deceit and voter suppression. The defeat of Initiative 439 means Nebraska’s restrictive, 12-week ban will remain in effect. It’s a chilling reflection of how the anti-abortion movement’s underhanded tactics can successfully thwart the democratic process.