Nebraska GOP governor would call special session to ‘do more to protect preborn babies’ if Roe v. Wade overturned

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) said on Sunday that he will call for a special session in his state’s legislature to “do more to protect preborn babies” should the Supreme Court ultimately decide to overturn Roe v. Wade.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” co-host Dana Bash asked Ricketts if he thinks there should be exceptions for abortions in the cases of rape and incest.

“So, can you clarify? Do you think that the state of Nebraska should require a young girl who was raped to carry that pregnancy to term?” Bash asked Ricketts. 

“So, Nebraska is a pro-life state. I believe life begins at conception. And those are babies too,” Ricketts replied. “So, if Roe vs. Wade, which was a horrible constitutional decision, gets overturned by the Supreme Court, which we’re hopeful of, here in Nebraska, we’re going to take further steps to protect those preborn babies.”

Ricketts then said he would call on Nebraska state House Speaker Mike Hilgers (R) to go into a special session “to protect preborn babies” without going in to detail on what further restrictions he would seek on a woman’s access to an abortion should it be banned on the federal level.

“So, if Roe is overruled and overturned, will you call a special session right away to ban abortion in Nebraska?” Bash asked Ricketts. 

“Well, if we do get that, Roe vs. Wade, overturned, we will take — I will work with our speaker of the legislature to work on a special session and do more to protect preborn babies,” Ricketts said. “We will have to wait and see what that decision is before we can take further steps, but that would certainly be my intention.”

Earlier this month, Politico obtained and published a draft opinion decision that signaled the majority of justices would favor overturning the landmark 1973 decision. If the federal law is overturned, more than 20 states have mechanisms in place that would ban abortions.