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.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Amid losing streak, Huskers need to keep grinding: “That’s the bottom line”
No one likes the sound or feel of a losing streak. And when one of those reaches four games, like it has for Fred Hoiberg’s Nebraska Cornhuskers, those outside the program start thinking the worst.
Will the program make the 15-team Big Ten Tournament? Will the Huskers get back to the Big Dance for a second consecutive season? Is it time to hit the panic button with 13 regular-season games remaining?
Yes, the noise is awfully loud outside of Hoiberg’s program, which sits at 12-6 overall and 2-5 in Big Ten play after dropping four straight, three of which have come on the road.
Inside the Huskers’ walls, though, Hoiberg still believes his team will weather this storm it finds itself in. And while it doesn’t look or feel like it for some, those postseason goals set in the summer when this roster was finalized are still alive.
“It’s all out there right now,” Hoiberg said Tuesday during a press conference at Pinnacle Bank Arena ahead of Wednesday night’s 8 p.m. home game against USC (11-7, 3-4). “We went from being in a really good situation, in a really good position, to still having our goals right in front of us.”
While it was a loss and moral victories aren’t really his thing, it was hard for Hoiberg to ignore the positives he and his staff saw for stretches at Maryland. The defensive intensity wasn’t there for a full 40 minutes, but there was enough of it to nearly escape with a win against a team Nebraska hasn’t beat on the road since January 2017.
“One thing I really liked about the last game, I thought our defensive edge was back, and that’s got to be our constant,” Hoiberg said.
Keeping the players focused on the upcoming job and not on what a four-game losing streak could turn into is a top priority right now. So is ramping things up defensively. That’s where it starts.
In seven games against Big Ten competition, Nebraska is allowing 81.4 points per game, third-worst in the conference behind Iowa (88.6) and Minnesota (82.9). The Huskers’ perimeter defense has struggled mightily with too many slow or out-of-position rotations and soft close-outs. Nebraska’s last four opponents have have shot a combined 47% from 3 (58-of-122), with Maryland making 10 3s, Rutgers 12, Purdue 19 and Iowa 17.
Responding from adversity, not hitting the panic button and sticking together on the court when things go south is the name of the game right now. It’s a long season, and the road doesn’t get much easier with the Huskers’ next three opponents after USC being ranked in No. 18 Wisconsin, No. 17 Illinois and No. 15 Oregon.
“Body language in this business, man, it’s not good. Teams will pounce, they’ll smell blood in the water and they’ll jump all over you when that happens,” Hoiberg said. “We show examples of it when guys hang their heads or throw their arms up. When we stay together, we’re pretty good and we have a chance. And I thought for the most part, against Maryland, it was good. Against Rutgers, I didn’t see a lot of head hanging. We played hard that game, we just didn’t play with the toughness that we needed to. We got it back in this last one.
“So, just keep grinding, man. That’s the bottom line. We just got to keep fighting, keep swinging. And I’m confident this team will go on a run at some point.”
The team doesn’t want to always have to rely on a packed PBA to get a win, but having thousands in red backing you up on the court sure is nice. And for the first time since the Indiana win on Dec. 13, the student section will be full as classes at UNL have started again.
“Our students will be back tomorrow. Very important for us to get the crowd behind us early in this game, coming off the streak that we’re on right now,” Hoiberg said. “Got to do everything in our power to get out of it.”
Potential injuries could lead to a shake-up to the starting lineup or rotation
On Tuesday Hoiberg mentioned the team is dealing with a bit of an injury situation one day out from the game. Understandably, the head coach declined to mention which players.
“We’ve got a couple guys who are nursing some injuries right now that have not practiced, who will hopefully be ready for the game tomorrow,” said Hoiberg.
More on USC, which has a former Millard North Mustang who’s playing well
USC comes to Lincoln averaging 77 points per game, which ranks 12th in the Big Ten, right in front of Nebraska’s 76.6.
The Trojans’ ability to take and make the 3 will obviously play a large factor in the game. As a team, USC is averaging the fewest 3-point attempts per game in the conference (18.2) but is shooting 35.2% from 3 (6th in Big Ten). Defensively, the Trojans are allowing 77.3 points per game against Big Ten opponents (T-7th).
USC has had an up and down season. In November, the Trojans lost by 35 points, 71-36, to a common non-conference opponent of Nebraska’s in St.Mary’s. That day USC shot a horrid 26% (13-of-50) from the field and missed all 12 3-point attempts.
But head coach Eric Musselman’s team also beat Washington on the road 85-61, trailed by just 4 points with 11 minutes left in the game at Michigan before losing 85-74 and beat No. 13 Illinois 82-72 in Champaign on Jan. 11.
USC’s leading scorer is Desmond Claude, a 6-foot-6, 201-pound guard and transfer from Xavier who’s averaging 16 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists. Claude isn’t a dangerous 3-point shooter as he’s shooting 30% from deep this season (8-of-26), but he’s tough to defend when attacking the paint. He scored 31 points at Illinois and went 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Nebraska’s defensive rotations will obviously need to be crisper than they’ve been during this losing streak, especially when those skip passes opponents like to throw against Nebraska’s double-the-post defense finds Chibuzo Agbo, Wesley Yates III and Saint Thomas.
Agbo is a 6-7, 227-pound guard who’s shooting 38% from 3 (41-of-107) and has five games of four or more made 3s this season. Yates is a 6-4, 219-pound guard who’s shooting 37% from (20-of-54).
Hoiberg noted USC’s rotation players can all handle the ball well and are around the same size, in that 6-6 to 6-8 range.
“They’re extremely talented when you look top to bottom with their rotation guys, it’s got an unbelievable level of talent,” Hoiberg said. “And obviously Eric Musselman is one of the best in the business as far as getting his guys going once they get hot.”
As for Thomas, Husker fans should know all about the 6-7 product out of Millard North High School in Omaha. After spending the first two seasons of his college career at Loyola Chicago and last season at Northern Colorado, the 6-7, 235-pound Thomas has started all 18 games for USC and is averaging 11 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
Thomas, who is coming off a 24-point outing against Iowa and a 19-point effort against Wisconsin, is capable from behind the arc as he’s shooting 34.5% (19-of-55). In his last two games, Thomas has gone 5-of-7 from 3.
“He’s having a great year. He’s one of the more versatile players in this league. I’m happy for him, he’s a good kid,” Hoiberg said. “He’s playing really good basketball for them right now. …He can rebound the ball, he can push it and handle it. He’s doing a lot of really good things for USC. …He’s a load out there, especially playing in a front-court position. He’s strong, he’s thick and he’s got good athleticism.”
The professionalism from Ahron Ulis is paying off
With Maryland using a full-court pressure against the Huskers on Sunday, fans saw both of Nebraska’s point guards on the court at the same time in Rollie Worster and Ahron Ulis.
Ulis came off the bench and gave Nebraska a jolt of life. He dished off a career-high 10 assists and only turned the ball over once. He didn’t get his shot to fall against the Terrapins — he scored 3 points and went 1-of-6 from the field and 0-of-1 from 3 — but he helped generate offense for others and did well defensively with four boards and two steals.
The 27 minutes Ulis played were his most since playing 29 for Iowa against Minnesota on February 12, 2023.
“I thought Ahron obviously had his best game in a Nebraska uniform,” Hoiberg said.
Nebraska’s head coach couldn’t say enough about how Ulis has handled everything since he’s been a Husker.
“I’ll say this about Ahron, I give him all the credit in the world. He played six minutes against Rutgers and played pretty well, and didn’t get in there in the second half,” Hoiberg said. “He was as good as anybody we had walking into the gym the next morning. As far as being a leader and using his voice, that stuff pays off. The basketball gods work in a weird way. When you respect the game, when you go out and do things right, it rewards you.”
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Nebraska
Pillen budget proposal would bury all 'good life’ districts, but lawmaker holds out hope for a fix • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — All of Nebraska’s “good life” districts appear to be in a precarious spot — not just the embattled one in Gretna — as Gov. Jim Pillen’s proposed budget seeks to deny $5 million a year set aside for the new state incentive that had been committed for multiple years to boost the buildout of those destination sites.
Pillen’s recently revealed biennial budget package targets “Good Life Transformational Projects” as one of about 50 programs and incentives the Legislature and governor approved over the past five years but that Pillen now proposes cutting. It’s part of his strategy to address a projected two-year $432 million state budget shortfall.
Specific to the good life districts, the governor wants to reject roughly $5 million annually in incentives budgeted through 2029, for a revenue savings of about $20 million in four years. The plan notes that the benefit was to stretch longer, for up to 30 years — derived from a now-controversial cut in the state sales tax rate within the district boundaries.
Here’s how the incentive works: Under the 2023 Good Life Transformational Projects Act, championed by then-State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, the state sales tax within up to five “good life” districts is to be slashed in half, from 5.5% to 2.75%. The idea was that the difference would be redirected to help develop unique, entertainment and shopping districts that ultimately and over time would rake in more tourists and money for the state.
Controversy swirls
Controversy has swirled around the incentive — mostly as it relates to the largest and highest-profile district — in Gretna. The state approved that district based on an application by Nebraska Crossing owner Rod Yates and last April cut the sales tax within the district’s city limits.
But Gretna officials and Yates deadlocked over terms for his multibillion dollar mega sports-themed vision. Without an actual project or mechanism in place to recapture the vacated portion of the tax, an average of $300,000 a month in sales tax revenue has been lost. As of November, more than $2.2 million was forfeited, according to an update from the Nebraska Department of Revenue.
The governor told reporters at a budget briefing last week that he regrets signing into law certain funding incentives, including the good life districts, and he sees now as the time to “reverse” the course.
State Sen. Brad von Gillern, who has replaced Linehan as chair of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee, said that he has not seen the bill language reflecting the governor’s request. But he said that, as described in the proposed budget, the entire good life district concept would end.
The Omaha senator prefers less drastic measures. He said he is working with a group of state senators on revised legislation that would “preserve the program in a more workable way.”
Besides Gretna, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development has approved formation of good life districts in Grand Island, Bellevue and Omaha. All are in various early stages, with Gretna the last to hold a local election (on Jan. 14) that was required under a 2024 revision to the good life law. Voter approval was needed to tap into the state incentive to help private development.
There is no denying, von Gillern said, that state officials have not been pleased with certain aspects of the law, including that state tax revenue went uncollected in Gretna without even benefiting a project.
Yates persists
Linehan, the sponsor of the original legislation, also has publicly denounced how the law has played out — not only in Gretna, she told the Nebraska Examiner, although that is where her fury was focused.
In her recent criticism, Linehan said the 2024 revisions to the legislation also opened the door for cities to use the incentive in a way she believes lawmakers did not intend, for projects less spectacular than one-of-a-kind. She said that the state did not give up revenue for cities to use the public incentive on non-extraordinary ventures.
“Shame on me,” she told the Nebraska Examiner previously. “But something is very wrong here.”
Yates, meanwhile, asked the DED on Jan. 13 to terminate his district application. He said he now is seeking someone to push alternative legislation that would help his vision materialize. He said he has amassed partners ready to build arenas and other components and has not given up.
Yates said he has continued to talk with representatives of the Pillen administration. The governor and K.C. Belitz, DED director, had been involved early on in Yates’ vision, at one point traveling to New York to help the former Husker split end’s effort to woo a pro hockey team to Nebraska and the Gretna good life district.
Von Gillern told the Examiner that said he does not plan to introduce separate legislation to catapult that mega project and did not know of any such bills in the pipeline.
State officials said Jan. 13 that they would seek information from Gretna officials to determine if the approved Gretna project and district remain viable. The 2,000-acre district’s boundaries include and surround the Nebraska Crossing campus near Interstate 80 and Highway 31, between Nebraska’s two largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln.
Gretna sees district surviving
DED said it has the authority to terminate the good life district if it determines the approved project is no longer viable and if termination is in the best interests of the state economy.
Gretna’s Mayor Mike Evans has said they would present evidence to the state that the district should continue, even without Yates’ participation. He said multiple developers within the district are capable of delivering a transformative project.
Gretna officials have said they wanted to work with Yates, but he was not willing to budge on what they believed were legal and financial risks for taxpayers. They said his demands involved possible use of eminent domain, as Yates owned only a slice of the property within the district.
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LINCOLN, Ne. (WMTV) – Wisconsin women’s basketball lost 91-60 at Nebraska on Monday.
This was the Badgers’ seventh-straight loss. They have no won a game since December 20 and have only one Big Ten win this year.
Junior forward Serah Williams had a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds. Freshman Carter McCray had 14 points and junior Ronnie Porter had 11. The Cornhuskers went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter.
Wisconsin only shot 38% from the floor, while Nebraska shot 54%.
Up next, the Badgers will play at no. 23 Minnesota on Sunday at 2:00 PM.
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