Nebraska Supreme Court upholds law restricting both medical care for transgender youth and abortion
OMAHA, Nebraska — A Nebraska law that combines restrictions on abortion with another measure limiting gender-affirming health care for minors does not violate an amendment to the state constitution that requires bills to be limited to a single subject, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The state Supreme Court recognized in its ruling that abortion and gender-affirming care are “distinct forms of medical care,” but the law does not violate Nebraska’s single-subject rule because both abortion and transgender health fall within the subject of medical care.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. The high court rejected arguments from ACLU attorneys who argued that hybrid law passed last year, violates Nebraska’s single subject rule.
Republican lawmakers in Nebraska’s officially nonpartisan Legislature had originally proposed separate bills: a ban on abortion in about six weeks pregnant and a bill that would restrict gender-affirming treatment for minors. The GOP-dominated Legislature a ban on abortion from 12 weeks added only moved to the existing Gender Affirming Care Act after the six-week ban failed to pass a filibuster.
The combination bill was the most controversial in the 2023 session of the Nebraska Legislature, and its restrictions on gender-affirming care prompted a epic filibuster in which a handful of lawmakers attempted to block every bill for the duration of that legislative session — even the bills they supported — in an attempt to thwart it.
A district judge the lawsuit was dismissed last August, and the ACLU appealed to.
In oral argument before the Supreme Court in March, a lawyer for the state argued that the combined abortion and transgender care measures did not violate the state’s single subject rule because both fall within the subject of health care.
But an attorney for Planned Parenthood argued that the Legislature recognized abortion and transgender care as separate issues by introducing them as separate bills at the start of last year’s legislative session.
“It only brought them closer together when it was forced to,” argued ACLU attorney Matt Segal.
At least 25 states have laws passed restrict or ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states are facing lawsuits. Federal judges have struck down the bans in Arkansas and Florida as unconstitutional. Judges have issued temporary injunctions blocking enforcement of the Montana ban and aspects of the Georgia ban.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have moved to enforce new bans or restrictions. Most Democrat-dominated states have tried to protect abortion access.