Election 2022: Nebraska gubernatorial candidates on abortion

COLUMBUS, Neb. (WOWT) - With the Nebraska Legislature coming two votes shy of creating stricter abortion rules this summer, many voters in the state are casting ballots based on this one issue.

Protests supporting abortion rights popped up across the country this spring and summer this is one outside Omaha’s City Hall.

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning 50 years of protections, more than a dozen Republican-led states effectively banned abortions — and many do not allow exceptions for rape or incest.

Nebraska currently allows abortions up to 20 weeks.

Gov. Pete Ricketts attempted to bring back lawmakers for a special session to reduce the abortion timeframe to 15 weeks, but fell two votes short.

“When people are having conversations about weeks, I’m mystified,” Jim Pillen told 6 News.

The Republican candidate for governor of Nebraska governor said he believes life begins at conception and says, if elected, he’ll do everything in his power to protect the unborn.

“I’ve never heard anyone having an abortion and then having a party that night. Nobody can comprehend that burden these poor young ladies live with the rest of their life,” he said. “We have to help them choose love and life. We need to go back to 1973 when the focus was on babies growing in the mother’s womb.”

Democratic candidate Carol Blood said there are already protections in place.

“Nebraska has laws in place to protect the unborn, but also allows doctors to do their jobs — without interference from lawyers or state government,” she said.

The views of the two candidates who want to lead the state for the next four years are in sharp contrast on this issue.

“Politicians are not doctors,” Carol Blood said. “We do not belong in a doctor’s office.”

Blood she believes Nebraska has a good balance now, allowing doctors to do their job while having limits in place to protect the unborn.

“We have to be really careful when we talk about this issue. There is clearly a difference between an abortionist and an Ob-Gyn,” she said. “The last bill they pushed in the Legislature was a bill too far, and they took away your rights as a patient and endangered the lives of women as we’ve seen in other states.”

Pillen said abortion isn’t a question of women’s rights.

“I’m a believer in women’s rights, but ... making a decision to murder a baby in the mother’s womb, that’s not a woman’s right,” he said.

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