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Protestors at the Supreme Court
Jose Luis Magana/AP

Anti-Abortion Advocates Have a New Ballot Strategy: Dueling Constitutional Amendments

Nebraska voters will get to decide on two conflicting amendments this fall, making the state a testing ground for dueling initiatives.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Ballot initiatives have been a winning strategy for abortion rights advocates in their push to prevent or override statewide abortion bans. But anti-abortion activists are now on the cusp of finding a way to challenge them: adding conflicting measures to the ballot.

Nebraska is the only state this year where voters are set to decide the fate of two abortion-related initiatives. One would codify abortion access until fetal viability in the state’s constitution, and the other, which was designed in response to the first, would leave the state’s 12-week ban in place.

“I believe that having a competing initiative will be the tool that is necessary to stop the abortion advocacy groups and their efforts,” said Sandy Danek, president of Nebraska Right to Life, one of the groups organizing behind the anti-abortion initiative. “I hope that we ring through with success so well that the other states say, ‘Maybe this is a possibility for us.’”