NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n Nebraska’s 49-member unicameral legislature, it takes 33 votes to overcome a filibuster. At the end of April, the Nebraska Heartbeat Act, legislation that would limit elective abortions to the first six weeks of pregnancy, came up one vote short — 32–15 — after Republican state senator Merv Riepe balked at the six-week limit and announced he was in favor of a twelve-week limit.
Riepe, an 80-year-old Republican in the state’s officially non-partisan legislature, infuriated pro-life advocates, who pointed out that as a candidate, he had filled out a questionnaire in which he checked “yes” in response to the commitment that he would “support legal protection for the life of every pre-born child from the moment of conception, unless the mother’s life is at risk.”
Despite pressure to reconsider, Riepe says he isn’t budging. “Should I have not made that commitment pledge. Yeah,” Riepe told National Review in a phone interview on Thursday. “I reserve the right to change my mind.” He attributed the change of mind to conversations and articles he had read.
“I believe that the twelve-week [bill] was a reasonable, workable, sustainable, place to be,” Riepe said. “I’m pleased that we at least stand a reasonable chance [to pass it]. We’ll know next Tuesday afternoon when it probably hits the floor.” Riepe said he hasn’t formally committed to voting for the bill because he wants “to make sure it is what it says it is.”
Supporters of an expansive right to abortion argue that it is impermissible under Nebraska’s constitution to add a twelve-week abortion limit as an amendment to legislation protecting minors from transgender surgeries. The Nebraska constitution says bills should have only one subject, but the state supreme court has taken a broad view of what constitutes a single subject. Both provisions of the bill — protecting minors from transgender surgeries and protecting babies from abortion later than twelve weeks of pregnancy — fall under the single subject of protecting children. The title of the bill, “Let Them Grow Act,” is apt for each provision. “Both bills came out of Health and Human Services. Both bills deal with children,” Nebraska state senator Kathleen Kauth told National Review. “The title of my bill is ‘Let Them Grow,’ and I can’t think of anything more germane than the child growing inside the mother and being safe.”
While Riepe now generally supports a legal right to abortion in the first few months of pregnancy, he also argues that a twelve-week limit will stand a better chance of being upheld by the voters. The Nebraska constitution allows referenda to repeal legislative acts by a simple majority. A poll for pro-life groups showed a solid majority of Nebraskans supported protecting life after a heartbeat is detected, but the pro-life side fared poorly in referenda in 2022. Measures stating that there was no constitutional right to abortion failed in red states such as Kansas and Kentucky, but those measures may have been seen as proposals paving the way for a near-total ban, and it’s uncertain how a statewide vote on a heartbeat law would have fared.
If it passes, the twelve-week limit is an incremental gain for life, and nothing would stop pro-lifers from passing a six-week limit if a committed pro-lifer fills Riepe’s seat in 2026. “I’m sure that both sides will continue to work to either get more restrictions, or get fewer restrictions than but as it stands, I think it’s reasonable,” Riepe says of the twelve-week bill.