OMAHA, NEBRASKA—Nebraska politicians who want to ban abortion today introduced LB1086, a bill that places further restrictions on medication abortions in the state and includes additional reporting requirements for abortion providers.
The measure would ban medication abortions after seven weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant and 21 days earlier than the limit recommended by the FDA. It also places burdensome, medically-unnecessary reporting requirements on health care staff who provide medication abortions. The medication abortion bill comes on the heels of two abortion bans that were introduced earlier this month by state lawmakers; one that would ban abortion in Nebraska in the absence of federal protections and another than would ban almost all abortions at six weeks of pregnancy.
“The safety of medication abortion has been reaffirmed again and again,” said Andi Curry Grubb Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska. “Banning medication abortion after seven weeks of pregnancy is nothing but an attempt to further restrict abortion access and prevent Nebraskans from getting the care they need. These decisions should be between a person and their doctor, not politicians who lack medical expertise. Abortion is health care, and Nebraskans deserve access to the health care they need when they need it. The majority of Nebraskans support the right to safe and legal abortion. And Planned Parenthood will fight to keep it that way.”
Nebraskans already face hurdles in receiving medication abortion because of existing restrictions passed by the Legislature. Currently, a person must receive the medication abortion in-person at the providers’ office if patients are less than 11 weeks pregnant., a practice that the FDA and medical associations have deemed unnecessary, Providers are also required to provide unscientific, medically inaccurate information about so-called medication abortion reversals, again, a practice that has been deemed harmful by major medical associations.
More than 60 percent of the more than 2,700 abortions performed in Nebraska in 2020 were medication abortions, according to the state’s most recent annual abortion statistical report. Medication abortions are as safe as surgical abortions, with a safety record of more than 99 percent. Since mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000, more than 4 million patients in the United States have relied on the mifepristone–misoprostol regimen to safely end their pregnancies.
Abortion, including medication abortion, is and continues to be extremely safe. The most common method of medication abortion is a combination regimen of two oral medications: mifepristone and misoprostol.
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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska Action Fund, formerly PP Voters of Nebraska, is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization. As the advocacy and electoral arm of PPNCS, we mobilize supporters of all parties to defend and increase access to family planning services and fact based, medically accurate sexuality education. We work to inspire and engage citizens to take up the cause of reproductive health and rights through education, electoral activity, grassroots organizing and legislative advocacy.
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