OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — With ballot deadlines approaching, courts in Nebraska and Missouri are weighing legal arguments that could take measures seeking to expand abortion rights out of the hands of voters. In Missouri, a day before the state's Supreme Court plans to hear arguments over whether a proposed abortion-rights amendment will go before voters, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft decertified the measure, removing it from the ballot himself.
Monday's move by Ashcroft, who opposes abortion, is largely symbolic. The Supreme Court is expected to have the final say on whether the measure, which is designed to undo Missouri’s near-total abortion ban, should go before voters or not. Tuesday's Missouri Supreme Court hearing is mere hours before the state's deadline to make changes to this year's ballot.
In Nebraska, the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in three lawsuits that seek to keep one or both of the state’s competing abortion initiatives off the ballot. One initiative would enshrine in the Nebraska Constitution the right to have an abortion until viability, or later to protect the health of the pregnant woman. The other would write into the constitution Nebraska's current 12-week abortion ban, passed by the Legislature in 2023, which includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the pregnant woman.
Two lawsuits — one brought by an Omaha resident and the other by a Nebraska neonatologist who both oppose abortion — argue that the measure seeking t.
