Nebraska voters who did not opt for early voting are going to have to think clearly in the booth when they reach the final pages of their ballot form on Tuesday, November 5. They will have to vote on two opposing abortion referendums. This statewide and national first is fueling a wave of online and roadside advertising, focused on two numbers: 434 and 439.

At the bottom of the third page of the ballot, voters will be asked to decide on Initiative 434, calling for the Nebraska Constitution to prohibit voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) after the first trimester of gestation, except for compelling medical reasons or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

After voting on the next page for or against the use of public money in private schools and the recreational use of cannabis, voters will again be asked to decide on abortion. Initiative 439 proposes a reversal of the 2023 adoption by the state's unicameral legislature of a first-trimester limit of 12 weeks instead of the previous 20. This step backward followed the US Supreme Court's June 2022 elimination of the federal right to abortion.

Francie & Finch is a shop based in the center of Lincoln, the state capital, and prides itself on selling books denounced or banned in Nebraska schools because they talk about sexual minorities. Megan, one of the booksellers, told us that this referendum competition was fueling confusion. "I never bring up the subject myself, but my customers talk about it a lot, mostly to lament the chaos that has arisen," with each side accusing the other of misinformation, she said. Megan noted that she was personally unable to predict the outcome of the vote.

After the necessary signatures had been collected so that these texts could be put to the vote, an unusually high number of people – over 300 – asked to be removed from the list in favor of Initiative 434. They explained that they had been misled into thinking they were signing the pro-choice initiative, said Alice Clapman of the Brennan Center for Justice, a civil rights organization. The lawyer explained that promoters of the project limiting access to abortion "are imitating the visual codes and terminology of pro-choice ads, including, in an Orwellian twist, accusing the other initiative of encouraging government intrusion" into personal decisions.

Indeed, you have to read the text of 434 carefully to identify an anti-abortion reference: the "protection" of "unborn children." The opposing proposal, on the other hand, emphasizes the "fundamental right to abortion" of "every person" and this "until the fetus is viable," meaning beyond the 20 weeks that Nebraska set as the limit before 2023.

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