Next month, abortion will be the subject of local referendums all over the United States: a heated debate that turns into a big mess in Nebraska, with two competing texts and accusations of deception between Republicans and Democrats.
This Midwestern state currently prohibits abortion after 12 weeks. But going to the polls, voters will have to decide on two ways to amend the local constitution.
“It’s confusing,” Jean Hanson, an accountant from Omaha, told AFP.
On the one hand, a referendum supported by the right simply proposes to ratify the status quo, by including the existing provisions in the fundamental law of the State.
On the other hand, a text preferred by the left wants the constitution to guarantee the right to abortion before the viability of the fetus, i.e. between 22 and 24 weeks.
If both are approved, only the referendum with the greatest number of votes in favor will come into force.
If Mme Hanson has done her research, she knows that this is far from being the case for everyone.
“I think a lot of people will vote for both, which defeats the purpose, or they will end up voting for the wrong one,” regrets the sixty-year-old.
Each popular initiative referendum has far exceeded the number of signatures needed to be voted on.
But already during this process, dozens of residents assured local media that they had been deceived: some signed the right-wing petition, thinking they were supporting the left-wing text, and vice versa.
“There was confusion,” admits Merv Riepe, a local Republican parliamentarian. However, “it is easier to put your name on a petition than to have it removed. »
In parallel with the presidential election, voters will therefore have to carefully read propositions 434 and 439 on abortion, to ensure that they do not check the wrong box on their ballot.
Mutual accusations
For local Democratic elected official John Cavanaugh, the conservative camp created its own text after that of the left, “to muddy the waters and make it more difficult to adopt” the text guaranteeing abortion up to viability.
ConverselyRepublican Don Bacon accuses his Democratic opponents of being “deceptive.” For him, the latter “exaggerate” the severity of the right-wing text, which prohibits abortion after 12 weeks, with exceptions in cases of rape and incest.
An excellent reflection of the presidential battle between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, where abortion takes center stage.
The Democrat accuses Mr. Trump of being the architect of the decline in abortion rights in the United States.
The Republican billionaire has often boasted of having named the Supreme Court judges who canceled the constitutional guarantee of abortion in 2022, but also tries to put this decision into perspective, which he knows is unpopular with Americans.
Over the past two years, at least 20 American states have banned or restricted access to abortion in one way or another, including Nebraska, where the issue is particularly thorny.
Last year, Mr. Riepe’s vote in the local Senate prevented the adoption of a law banning abortion after six weeks. The Republican parliamentarian then received insulting letters and had to be placed under police protection.
One of his conservative colleagues even sent him a message wishing him to “roast in the depths of hell,” he recalls.
“But we are friends again now,” assures the chosen one.
Mr. Riepe then wrote the current 12-week law, choosing this duration based on European countries like Germany and Italy.
Now that it has been passed, this former hospital administrator supports a bill authorizing abortion up to 20 weeks when the fetus suffers from a fatal illness.
The Nebraska Legislature has postponed its consideration indefinitely.
In the meantime, this parliamentarian intends to “probably stay away from the two” referendums next month. “Both sides distort reality a little,” he believes.