“If this really is about dignity for the fetus, which is what Republicans say…then why wouldn’t it apply to all pregnancies?” Jessica Valenti, the author of the Abortion, Every Day newsletter, said in March of LB 632. “They could not make it any clearer that this is about punishment, and shaming women who choose to end their pregnancies.”
It doesn’t help that LB 632 is also short and ambiguous. While it says it only applies to health care providers rather than abortion patients, it doesn’t specify punishment for those in violation. And while it only claims to apply to remains from abortions, its vagueness leaves open the door for future legislation that could punish individuals for how they dispose of remains from a miscarriage.
States like Ohio and Indiana have passed similar laws, but hold the abortion patient responsible for paying for their fetal remains to be buried or cremated, which can cost up to $2,000. Even worse, Ohio’s law requires those who have abortions to obtain a death certificate for their aborted remains, entering their abortion into the public record. Given the history of pregnant people in the U.S. facing criminal charges for pregnancy loss or self-managed abortion—especially over how they dispose of remains—it’s not exactly reassuring that LB 632 claims to target only health care providers and not patients.
Just last month, a Georgia woman was jailed on criminal charges of “concealing the death of another person” and “abandonment of a dead body” after police recovered fetal remains from a dumpster near her apartment complex, following an anonymous tip. The woman could have faced up to 17 years in prison, but police ultimately dropped the charges. Before that, in Nebraska in February, police charged one woman with unlawful disposal of human remains, a felony, and concealing a death, a misdemeanor, over allegations that she, too, improperly disposed of remains from a self-managed abortion—even though police didn’t even see the remains, themselves. And in 2023, Brittany Watts faced a felony charge in Ohio for “abuse of a corpse” after flushing remains from her miscarriage down a toilet. About one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, and there are no clearly stated guidelines or requirements for how one should handle remains from losing your pregnancy.
“This is about shaming and stigmatizing care,” Omaha Sen. Ashlei Spivey said during the bill’s three-hour debate this week, according to KETV. “It’s about removing patients’ control over their own health care. It has absolutely nothing to do with improving the health and safety of Nebraskans.”
Hansen further claimed his bill is about “public health,” pushing the anti-abortion myth that pregnancy remains can infect water supplies. Since 2022, anti-abortion activists have been pressing the FDA to take action around the disposal of remains from medication abortion, which they baselessly claim is an environmental hazard.
“No matter what you personally believe about abortion, proposing this type of requirement without the patient having a say is wrong and insulting,” Spivey continued. “This, again, coming from people who have no reproductive system making decisions about my health care and access.”
Nonetheless, the bill is moving along: On Tuesday, lawmakers voted for cloture on LB 632. It now needs another round of debate and two more votes among the legislature before heading to the state’s Republican governor, Jim Pillen.
