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Nebraska is one of 10 states where abortion is on the ballot this election. It's the only state where voters will choose between two opposing proposals. One aims to expand abortion rights. The other would enshrine the current 12-week ban in the state's Constitution. Here's Nebraska Public Media's Elizabeth Rembert.
ELIZABETH REMBERT, BYLINE: Around Omaha and Lincoln, signs compete for your attention. Some show pictures of babies and say, it's the fight for their lives. Others prompt you to use your vote to end Nebraska's abortion ban. Ads from the Protect Our Rights campaign, which is backing the initiative to guarantee abortion until fetal viability, tell voters they need two votes from them at the ballot box - one supporting their measure and another vote against enshrining the current abortion limit that is right now Nebraska bans abortions past 12 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
ALLIE BERRY: Nebraskans do believe it's just not something that our government needs to be involved with.
REMBERT: That's Allie Berry, campaign manager with Protect Our Rights, the pro-abortion rights group. One of the group's TV ads features Kimberly Paseka, a Lincoln woman who learns late in her first trimester that her baby had a nonviable heartbeat.
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KIMBERLY PASEKA: I suffered with pain and bleeding for weeks. So please vote against 434 and for 439.
REMBERT: Speaking about her experience, Paseka said she joined the campaign because Nebraska's current law didn't allow her to access medical care while she lost her child.
PASEKA: I had to wait, knowing loss was inevitable and death was occurring inside of my own body. I felt like a walking coffin.
REMBERT: On the other side of the issue, groups favoring the current 12-week ban say the viability initiative has overly broad exceptions, lenient medical standards and not enough room for regulation. Sandy Danek leads Nebraska Right to Life and says the rival measure is turning out new volunteers for her group.
SANDY DANEK: And I found that very encouraging that people maybe who have never done anything with this issue are calling us.
REMBERT: Danek thinks Nebraska could reverse the trend in other states where voters have usually backed abortion rights. She says the 12-week limit her group supports gives voters another choice.
DANEK: I think it helps to reveal the difference between the two amendments, and people will go to that more commonsense approach.
REMBERT: Officials say that if both proposals win a majority of votes, whichever gets the most votes will win and be written into the state Constitution.
For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Rembert in Omaha, Nebraska. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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