Nebraska Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (LB 1103)

20-Week Abortion Ban

This bill bans abortion at 20 weeks post-fertilization except an abortion is permitted if it is necessary to avert death of the pregnant woman or to “avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function” or it is necessary to “preserve the life of an unborn child.”

The bill states that an abortion does not become necessary if the risk of death or a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function arises from a claim or diagnosis that the woman will engage in conduct that may result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.

Abortions performed after 20 weeks must be performed in a manner that provides the best opportunity for the “unborn child” to survive, unless in the physician’s reasonable medical judgment, termination of the pregnancy in that manner would pose a greater risk of death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function than would another method. No such greater risk exists if it is based on a claim or diagnosis that the woman will engage in conduct which will result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a bodily function.

The bill includes legislative findings based on junk science that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks.

The purpose of the 20-week ban is to protect Nebraska’s compelling interest in “protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain.”

Physician Reporting Requirements

Abortion providers are required to report to the state department of health:

• if the determination of probable post-fertilization age was made, what was determined, and how it was determined;
• if a determination of probable post-fertilization age was not made, why not—what was the basis for the medical emergency or what was the basis for a determination that the pregnancy was diagnosed as medically futile;
• if the probable post-fertilization age was 20 weeks or more and an abortion was performed, whether the method performed provided the best opportunity for the “unborn child” to survive, and if not, why not.

Reporting Requirements

By June 30 of each year, the state health department is required to issue a public report providing statistics compiled from all the reports provided by physicians.

Codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-3,106.

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