The overturning of Roe v. Wade ushered in a wave of thousands of bills nationwide, referring not just to abortion rights, but also many other hot topics, like gender-affirming care, tax-policy, and gun rights.
Nebraska has found itself in a hotspot of dozens of bills being passed to restrict abortion access, most notably the ban on abortion after the first trimester, the first three months of a pregnancy. Nebraska, however, stands out from many other states in its controversial exception of this rule in cases of rape or incest, in those cases allowing up to twenty-two-week abortions. This exception also places the state among many other more moderate states, like Iowa, North Carolina, and Georgia.
Along with these abortion bills signed in May of 2023 Nebraska also signed bills banning puberty blockers for some demographics and completely banning gender altering surgery for minors. When asked about the bill Governor Jim Pillen stated, “LB574 is the most significant win for social conservatives in a generation, and is part of what has been a historic legislative session with senators voting for policies that protect our kids, cut taxes, grow agriculture, and defend our Nebraska values.”
The access of transgender affirming care has especially come under attack in recent years with over six-hundred state bills being proposed in 2024 alone, with another eighty bills at the national level, an unprecedented number. These bills not only ban things like puberty blockers, gender transitioning surgery for minors, but also change the social and legal abilities of transgender people. For example, the regulation of which bathrooms transgender people may enter, banning of the legal use of the use of the term woman to refer to someone who is biologically male, banning of non-binary option on birth certificates, and many more rights were restricted through these bills.
Trans-rights are an especially controversial topic in the modern day with members of opposing parties having extremely passionate and personal disagreements of every kind, especially when discussing the medical applications. The gender altering surgeries especially come under controversy through the emotional word choice on each side, with Republicans describing it as “mutilating” and Democrats describing it as “lifesaving.”
Further controversy was also sparked with Nebraska’s changes in gun laws, especially the recent bill from 2023 LB77, which allows gun owners to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, and banned individual cities, townships, or counties from regulating certain gun laws. This bill especially affects areas in and around Omaha which, due to their more liberal policies, had unique restrictions on gun practices compared to most of Nebraska.
These gun laws are especially a point of contention in the upcoming election season, with the Harris campaign pushing heavy restrictions or even a ban on assault weapons, while the Trump administration opposes most gun control policies. The Trump campaign declared their policy to lift the restrictions of gun access to high suicide risk individuals, and their idea to remove the Zero-Tolerance policy put in place by the Biden administration. This Zero-Tolerance policy removed the ability of a violator of gun laws to wield a firearm for a given period.
All these recent pushes in gun policy make it even more surprising to hear that no new gun laws were passed in the 2024 Nebraska legislative session, an event that shook the 30-year streak of discussion on firearms in the state.
Nebraska has been part of the national shift away from valuing gun control as one of the most significant policies. According to Pew Research Center, gun control did not even rank among the top twenty most important policies for the election.
Controversial bills are the reason parties push for office, and following these bills being introduced in the past couple of years, there are only more bills to soon follow in the upcoming 2024 election season. Bills like LR384, examining nonprofit organizations, or even new tax bills, like in LR435, may be introduced this November.
