Pete Ricketts, Governor of Nebraska, appeared on CNN's Sunday Show State of the Union and was asked whether or not his state would make a move on an abortion ban if Roe v. Wade is actually overturned.
Many states have "trigger laws" to ban abortion that will go into effect the moment Roe is overturned; however, in Nebraska, that is not the case.
Dana Bash: Do you think that the state of Nebraska should require a young girl who was raped to carry that pregnancy to term?
Ricketts: So, Nebraska is a pro-life state. I believe that life begins at conception and those are babies too. So if Roe vs. Wade, which was a horrible constitutional decision, gets overturned in the Supreme Court, which we're hopeful of, here in Nebraska we're going to take further steps to protect those pre-born babies.
Bash: Inlcuding in the case of rape or incest?
Ricketts: They're still babies, too. Yes. They're still babies.
This HAS to be the answer of pro-lifers when asked about protecting babies conceived in rape and incest.
They're still babies.
It doesn't matter the tragic circumstance around the conception. Babies still deserve protection just because they're defenseless babies and they have the right to life.
More from CNN:
Ricketts said that in case Roe falls, "I will work with our speaker of the legislature to work on a special session and do more to protect preborn babies. We'll have to wait and see what that decision is before we can take further steps, but that would certainly be my intention..."
More than a dozen states have so-called trigger laws on their books, meaning that abortion will almost immediately be banned if Roe v. Wade is no longer in effect, and Nebraska nearly passed its own such law last month.
The state's unicameral legislature failed to advance a bill entitled the Nebraska Human Life Protection Act, which would have banned abortions without exceptions for rape and incest and would have created criminal penalties for physicians who violate the law. The measure would've gone into effect if the Supreme Court overruled Roe or if Congress were to enact a law giving states the authority to regulate abortion or if the Constitution were to be amended.
Republican state Sen. Joni Albrecht's motion to end debate on the bill she introduced failed by a vote of 31-15, falling short of two votes needed. Lawmakers had debated the bill for about eight hours.
As it stands now, there is no trigger law for the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
But the leadership in Nebraska is clearly on the side of life, and hopefully things will shake up enough this coming election cycle so that the outcome of the vote will change when Dobbs strikes down Roe.
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