Abortion in Nebraska

Abortion in Nebraska is mostly illegal after the 12th week of pregnancy.

On November 6, 2024, the Prohibit Abortions After the First Trimester Amendment passed with a 55% majority, putting ban into the Nebraska Constitution for abortions after the first trimester. It includes exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergency, but allows the legislature to enact restrictions within the first trimester such as the current 12-week ban. Another competing measure, the Nebraska Right to Abortion Initiative, which would have enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution up until fetal viability, was rejected, with 51% of Nebraskans voting against.^[1]

A November 2022 Hart Research poll found that 59% of Nebraskans opposed further abortion restrictions, with 48% strongly opposed, while only 36% supported additional bans, revealing increased support for abortion rights across both rural and urban areas and all congressional districts compared to earlier polling.^[2] In a 2014 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 50% of Nebraskan adults said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases while 46% said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.^[3] The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 51% of Nebraskans said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.^[4]

The number of abortion clinics in Nebraska has dropped drastically in recent decades, with eight in 1982, nine in 1992 and three in 2014. There were 2,270 legal abortions in 2014, and 2,004 in 2015.^[5]