Nebraska
Gov. Pillen, abortion-rights campaign clash over ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages and abortion • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen spent Tuesday seeking to explain how Nebraska physicians should care for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages while wading into the waters of competing abortion-related ballot measures.
Pillen did not directly refer to either ballot measure at a news conference he held with four medical providers, Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly and the state chief medical officer. State law prohibits elected officials from directly using state resources for campaigning. Pillen held his press conference in the governor’s hearing room at the State Capitol.
But the group made clear they were speaking against a “political agenda for abortion.”
They said they were seeking to fight “misinformation” about ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages, but they repeatedly declined to specify where they had heard the “misinformation” other than “in media” and “on TV.”
Ads promoting the abortion-rights ballot issue offered by Protect Our Rights feature doctors who say Nebraska patients struggle to get certain types of care for nonviable pregnancies or in emergency situations.
“To be clear, crystal clear, under current law, a woman in Nebraska can obtain care for miscarriage throughout her entire pregnancy,” Pillen said. “It is unconscionable for anyone to claim otherwise.”
Nebraska is the first state nationally where voters will weigh two competing abortion-related constitutional amendments this general election:
- Initiative Measure 434, offered by Protect Women and Children, seeks to prohibit most abortions after the first trimester.
- Initiative Measure 439, offered by Protect Our Rights, seeks to allow abortions up to the point of fetal viability, as determined by the treating health care provider.
Both campaigns have spent millions in advertising.
‘Desperate misleading propaganda’
Sponsors and backers of the abortion-rights constitutional amendment, from Protect Our Rights, said the timing of Pillen’s news conference seemed “absolutely intentional.” In a statement, the campaign derided the event as “desperate misleading propaganda.”
Dr. Emily Patel, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Omaha, was one of four medical providers who took part in a counter event later Tuesday organized by Protect Our Rights.
Patel said pregnancy is a high-risk condition that can threaten the life of expecting mothers, cause infertility or lead to death.
Patel told the Nebraska Examiner that Pillen’s event raised multiple “red flags” by focusing on current law without specifying where the “misinformation” came from. She said she and other supporters of the abortion-rights ballot measure have spent their own time combating information about their campaign.
“Being truthful with patients, to me, means giving them all the options that are available to them,” Patel said.
Dr. Catherine Brooks, a neonatologist who supports the abortion restrictions amendment by Protect Women and Children, said “fetal viability” has no clear medical definition and is “a gray area” for providers.
“Women expect precision from their health care professionals, but fetal viability has no precise definition,” Brooks said in a statement. “[Initiative] 439 is not medically acceptable.”
The current 2023 law prohibits most abortions after 12 weeks gestational age, or at the end of the first trimester, during which most abortions are performed.
The current scientific standard for fetal viability is at about 22-24 weeks gestation.
‘The confusion is out there’
Dr. Timothy Tesmer, the state chief medical officer, said his duty is to ensure that the medical community understands clearly what the law means.
“The confusion is out there,” Tesmer said. “Not only with patients in the public, but also with medical providers.”
Current state law, adopted in 2023, included explicit language protecting treatment of ectopic pregnancies, and Tesmer said most questions he fields from medical providers relate to the exceptions language. He noted that the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services offered guidance on exceptions at least once in spring 2023, when the Legislature was debating a near-total abortion ban.
Tesmer said in vitro fertilization is allowed under current state law.
Lt. Gov. Kelly said the law includes no criminal penalties for doctors, and Tesmer said no Nebraska doctor’s license has been sanctioned or revoked since LB 574 took effect in May 2023.
“If they follow the law and exercise their reasonable medical judgment, there are no adverse consequences to their medical license,” Tesmer said.
Pillen encouraged any Nebraska women who have been told by a medical professional that they can’t receive care for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies to reach out to DHHS.
Tesmer said he has heard no complaints from women about access to care. If physicians have questions, he said they should reach out to their legal representatives or to DHHS.
Possible delays in care?
Patel said Tesmer’s answer illuminated some of the concern doctors are feeling. She said asking for legal advice could delay care.
“At 2 a.m. on a Sunday, that’s not the kind of situation that you want your doctor to be in when you’re in a life-threatening situation,” Patel said.
Dr. Elizabeth Constance, a reproductive endocrinologist in Omaha, said the governor’s news conference often conflated care for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies with treatment for patients with non-viable pregnancies.
“There is no confusion about whether this [miscarriages] can be managed,” Constance said.
Constance said if voters adopt the abortion-restrictions ballot measure offered by Protect Women and Children, there would be no way later to add other exceptions. That could include lethal fetal anomalies, or conditions that physicians decide will result in an infant’s death at or shortly after birth.
Tesmer said he would leave any decision on fetal anomalies to the Legislature.
‘A walking coffin’
Kimberly Paseka of Lincoln took part in the event supporting the abortion-rights measure and is appearing in ads for Protect Our Rights.
Paseka said Tuesday she miscarried early on in her first pregnancy and had a tough second pregnancy before giving birth to a healthy boy in 2021. Then last year, she was pregnant for a third time, and while she said she was fearful after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Paseka and her husband, hoped for the best.
Partway through her pregnancy, facing a diminishing fetal heartbeat, Paseka’s doctor sent her home for “expectant management,” meaning her condition would be closely monitored,without providing treatment, unless symptoms changed.
By then Paseka’s pregnancy was past the 12-week abortion limit. She said her doctor didn’t act because of confusion over LB 574. She described having intense pain and contractions that took a heavy toll on her mental and physical state, until she lost her baby at home.
“The tough part was knowing that my health wasn’t in immediate danger, but I had to wait for death to happen inside me,” Paseka said.
“I use the term ‘like a walking coffin,’ and I don’t know how to explain it any better than that, that it’s just waiting,” Paseka continued. “You’re just, you know death is happening, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
In her fourth pregnancy, Paseka said, she got an abortion after facing complications early on, which she said gave a sense of control over her own care.
The standards of care
The physicians who joined Pillen said they have been with women in their worst moments but feared that some of the rhetoric being used in the current political campaigns would discourage some women from seeking care.
For example, Dr. Richard Wurtz, a family medicine doctor with a specialty in obstetrics, said when faced with challenging medical situations, physicians “step up to the plate” and “rise to the challenge.”
He said current law ensures that life is respected and that women get proper care.
“Anyone who says this is not the case is not telling you the truth,” Wurtz said. “This is predicated on sound medical practice and on sound law.”
The physicians with Protect Our Rights said other more restrictive laws nationwide have harmed women or access to IVF. They said they oppose any impediment to care.
Patel said physicians will support patients no matter what path they choose.
“I think it’s really important for people to understand that we are not pushing a patient toward a termination or an abortion,” Patel said. “We are simply providing them with that option because that is what our standard of care is as obstetricians.”
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ALLIANCE, Neb. (WOWT) – Carhenge, a replica of the world-famous Stonehenge made of old cars, opened in the Nebraska Panhandle in 1987.
According to Visit Nebraska, it was constructed in Alliance by the Jim Reinders family in memory of his father during a family reunion.
Carhenge also includes sculptures made of old cars and car parts.
It is open year-round and free to visit.
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On July 4, 2026, our country will celebrate its 250th birthday. Every day leading up to it, First Alert 6 will take a look at the people and events that shaped our area.
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Copyright 2026 WOWT. All rights reserved.
LINCOLN, NEB — With less than 1% of Nebraska’s native tallgrass prairie remaining, Lincoln officials say a newly acquired tract of land could help preserve a disappearing part of the state’s landscape while expanding outdoor recreation opportunities for future generations.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and city leaders announced the purchase of nearly 100 acres southwest of Pioneers Park for $924,630 through a partnership involving the City of Lincoln, the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, and Solidago Conservancy.
The acquisition advances the Prairie Corridor on Haines Branch project, a long-term effort to establish a continuous conservation and recreation corridor stretching from Pioneers Park Nature Center in Lincoln to the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center near Denton.
Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said the project will provide additional opportunities for residents and visitors to experience Nebraska’s prairie landscape while protecting natural resources.
“Advancing the Prairie Corridor, we create more opportunities for residents and visitors to hike, bike, explore nature, and experience the beautiful landscape that defines our region,” Gaylor Baird said. “We protect vital natural resources that improve water quality and help reduce flood risk downstream, and we preserve an important part of Nebraska’s natural heritage for future generations.”
The newly acquired Prairie Corridor Link property is intended to help connect Pioneers Park Nature Center and Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center through a continuous protected prairie and trail system.
Plans for the Prairie Corridor include restoring over 5,000 acres of prairie lands (~2,000 acres of tallgrass prairie, and ~3,400 acres of native prairie) and constructing a 14.5-mile multiuse trail that will connect to Lincoln’s existing trail network.
“This property is a piece of a long-term vision to connect Pioneers Park Nature Center and Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center through a continuous corridor, protected prairie, and trail,” Gaylor Baird said.
Parks and Recreation Director Maggie Stuckey-Ross said approximately over a majority of the Prairie Corridor Trail project has now been secured.
“Once complete, the corridor will include a continuous 7,400-acre passage of tallgrass prairie and a 14.5-mile multiuse trail, and in just nine years, nearly 70% of the Prairie Corridor trail corridor has been secured,” Stuckey-Ross said.
Project leaders say the Prairie Corridor has the potential to become a destination for hikers, cyclists, students, and nature enthusiasts from across Nebraska while helping preserve one of the state’s rarest ecosystems for future generations.
More information about the Prairie Corridor on Haines Branch is available at PrairieCorridor.org.
NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (KOLN) – A piece of Underground Railroad history is reopening on Juneteenth after severe flooding forced it to close seven years ago.
The Mayhew Cabin offered shelter to people escaping slavery before the Civil War. Visitors can now walk through the same doors they did.
Family history connects to cabin
Darryl Hogan, president of the Mayhew Cabin Foundation, shares how his family escaped slavery in 1859.
“There was a slaveholder who held my third great-grandmother and a few other of the escaped slaves who had passed away, and they were going to be sold as property,” Hogan said from Canada. “So it was almost, in either a death sentence or a worse imprisonment than they had already had.”
The Mayhew family and abolitionist John Brown offered strangers a chance for freedom.
“En route, one of the enslaved people was pregnant and gave birth. So they are affectionately known as the 12 who passed through here,” said Doug Kreifels, board treasurer.
Cabin’s history dates to 1855
The Mayhew Cabin is one of Nebraska’s oldest structures, built in 1855 as the home of Allen B. Mayhew and his wife Barbara Ann. Barbara’s brother, John Kagi, lived there briefly as well.
Kagi helped abolitionist John Brown lead the enslaved people from Missouri to the cabin, as they escaped to Canada.
Flood damage closed site for seven years
Kreifels grew up learning about the cabin’s history.
“I remember when I went through that cabin and that cave and what an impact it had on me,” he said.
A flood in 2019 closed the site for seven years.
“And not only did it reach… as high as this overfill. I mean, it came up over the bank and flooded into the museum as well and caused some damage there,” Kreifels said.
Community effort restores cabin
The Mayhew Cabin Foundation restructured its board and used community grants to recruit Butch Bovier, a historical craftsman.
“Collectively, I think we bring a lot of skill sets together and goodwill,” said Robert Nelson, vice president of the board.
“They bring their dreams to me and I make them happen,” Bovier said.
Bovier helped restore the cabin.
“And that was kind of neat because what we did 20 years ago held up very well. In fact, it held up a lot better than we thought,” he said.
The team worked on the cottonwood logs.
“The logs are this wide, you don’t replace it because that much is bad. So we used a modern product to do some of that. In some cases, we just scraped it smooth,” Bovier said.
The team partially restored John Brown’s Cave. The cabin was moved to its current location in the 1930s from its original site. The owner at the time dug a tunnel-like system that leads to the ravine.
“It’s a tool that we use to help educate everyone who might have an interest in understanding what it might have been like for an enslaved person seeking freedom,” Kreifels said.
Volunteers make reopening possible
The Mayhew Cabin and John Brown’s Cave would not be able to open without the hard work of volunteers. For months, volunteers cleaned up the site and helped Bovier fix the cabin logs, cave and roof. One of them is Jason Hein, who moved to Nebraska City from California. Hein was looking for an opportunity to volunteer in the community and stumbled upon a Facebook post asking for extra hands to help at the Mayhew Cabin. His workplace Burr Farms donated machinery and services toward the efforts.
“You know, we don’t want things falling off the map. We want it to be there for future generations,” Hein said.
“And since that weekend, I’ve been out here Saturdays and Sundays every week. If there isn’t a whole bunch of hands trying to get something done, it’s not going to get done,” he said.
Volunteers have been preparing to reopen the site for more than three months.
“So, I mean, we’ve just literally been here, you know, cutting down trees or trimming trees and then people kind of walking by and seeing and asking, hey, what are you up to?” Nelson said.
The cabin will reopen on Juneteenth.
“And, it was just a matter of this is something that we need to do as a community. Let’s just do it and, make the world a little bit better place,” Hogan said.
Lane Trail and ‘Bloody Kansas’
The Mayhew Cabin was part of the Lane Trail on the Underground Railroad. At the time, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was formed and pro-slavery and abolitionists fought to sway the public toward their beliefs, giving it the nickname “Bloody Kansas.” Abolitionists in southeast Nebraska aided these efforts and helped slaves escape on the Lane Trail.
“It’s an incredible building, but it’s kind of the launch. It was seen as the southern terminus of the Army of the North marching into Kansas, but then also kind of the beginning of the Underground Railroad,” Nelson said.
Nelson, a former Omaha World Herald journalist, researched the Lane Trail extensively. He grew up in Falls City, Nebraska and found out his family has a history of aiding abolitionists.
“The successful fight to stop (slavery), based in Nebraska, or by the people who are involved with this Underground Railroad, is the reason the South secedes. They can’t expand anymore. You know, putting up the wall of Kansas really is what starts the Civil War. So that idea that’s that that’s the Civil War before the Civil War, and Nebraska played a big part of it. I think is a story that’s lost,” Nelson said.
Work remains on the site. The nonprofit wants to repair the museum building and other historic buildings on the property.
Juneteenth event details
A Juneteenth event starts at 7 p.m. Friday at the Mayhew Cabin in Nebraska City. People will have the opportunity to hear speeches from Butch Bovier, Robert Nelson and Darryl Hogan. The event is open to the public and free. There is outdoor seating, but people are welcome to bring lawn chairs. Live music will be provided by West Street Wranglers.
Refreshments will be served at the Hidden Falls Cave Event Center. The Mayhew Cabin is located at 2012 4th Corso in Nebraska City. Questions can be directed to Doug Kreifels at (402) 209-4060.
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