Veto Override Allowed Pro Life Policy to Prevail

Details: 04 May 2012

The 102nd Nebraska Legislature finished the second of its two regular sessions with ceremonies honoring its nine members whose current service ends this year due to term limits. Rightfully, these were bittersweet, but truly "feel-good" moments.

Nonetheless, the ceremony was preceded by intensity and drama on the last day, April 18, as the legislators considered motions to override four vetoes by the Governor.

Thirty votes are needed for an override to prevail. The motions were taken up in the following order.

First was LB 806, proposing to authorize pari-mutuel betting at the established horse-racing facilities in the state on randomly selected, electronically re-enacted, "historic horse races." The veto override failed by one vote.

Second was LB 357, proposing to authorize cities and towns to increase the local-option sales tax to as high as two percent, subject to approval by the local governing body and voter approval as well. The motion to override prevailed "on the number," 30-17.

Third was LB 1020, proposing to tap some funding from the education component of state lottery proceeds for capital construction and startup costs for school-based health centers. The weakness of this idea as a matter of public policy was reflected in the veto-override attempt falling three votes short.

The last of the override motions was the most controversial, most dramatic and, from our perspective, most significant. It was LB 599, proposing to restore access to prenatal health care for unborn children of impoverished pregnant women who are not eligible in their own right, most often because of unauthorized immigration status.

For more than two decades Nebraska provided access to prenatal health care for poor, pregnant women and their unborn children by means of Medicaid, irrespective of the mother’s ineligibility, e.g., immigration status. The unborn child was regarded as the recipient of health-care benefits. But federal Medicaid rules do not recognize unborn children as eligible recipients in their own right. In November 2009, the federal agency (CMS) realized that Nebraska’s approach was in error and ordered it halted.

The unborn-child option of the joint federal-state Children’s Health Insurance Program was identified as the alternative means of restoring this medically-wise and fiscally-prudent policy of providing access to prenatal health coverage for all unborn children in impoverished circumstances. It led to passage of LB 599 on April 11.

Governor Heineman vetoed the bill on grounds that taxpayer-funded prenatal health care should not be provided for "illegals," the inappropriate term he often uses in the political realm.

From the perspective of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, which supported restoration of such coverage from the onset of its retraction, LB 599 was not just about access to vitally important prenatal health care coverage, which indisputably assists the health and well-being of the child in utero, at birth, in infancy and later in life. Fundamentally, the core of LB 599 also presented a rare and unique opportunity to respect and uphold the individual humanity and dignity of unborn children as a matter of public policy. The federal policy option defines and treats the unborn child as a child.

For reasons known fully only to them, a number of legislators who otherwise are associated with a pro-life position on abortion-related issues did not see fit to embrace and apply this opportunity as the ultimate priority for their voting.

And yet the veto was overridden. From the perspective of the Nebraska Catholic Conference, the pro-life position prevailed. It happened by virtue of affirmative votes by 30 legislators, for whom commendation and gratitude are certainly warranted.

The following legislators voted consistently for LB 599 and in particular to pass the bill notwithstanding the objections of the Governor: Senators Greg Adams (York); Brad Ashford, Tanya Cook, Brenda Council, Burke Harr, Gwen Howard, Bob Krist, Steve Lathrop, Heath Mello and Jeremy Nordquist (all Omaha); Bill Avery, Kathy Campbell, Colby Coash, Danielle Conrad, Ken Haar and Amanda McGill (all Lincoln); Tom Carlson (Holdrege), Mark Christensen (Imperial), Abbie Cornett (Bellevue), Annette Dubas (Fullerton), Speaker Mike Flood (Norfolk), Mike Gloor (Grand Island), Galen Hadley (Kearney), John Harms (Scottsbluff), Russ Karpisek (Wilber), LeRoy Louden (Ellsworth), Paul Schumacher (Columbus), Kate Sullivan (Cedar Rapids), Norm Wallman (Beatrice) and John Wightman (Lexington).

A special salute is due those who had a leadership role. These included: Speaker Flood, whose floor speech and active involvement had a significant impact; Senators Campbell and Gloor, chair and vice-chair respectively of the Health and Human Services Committee, which sent the bill "to the floor" and kept its purpose meaningful over a two-year period; Senators Nordquist, Krist and Lathrop, among those who encouraged their colleagues and who advised supporting organizations; and Senator McGill, who designated LB 599 as her priority bill.　