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Republican state legislators in Nebraska rammed through a contentious bill restricting abortion and transgender healthcare last week with the help of a sick colleague who had just gotten out of hospital. Julie Slama, a state GOP senator, confirmed on Friday that she had been receiving treatment for hyperemesis gravidarium, a serious complication of pregnancy, but made it to the statehouse in time to cast a decisive vote. Earlier that day, Nebraska Examiner reporter Paul Hammel had posted a picture of her looking “clearly ill” as colleagues from both sides of the debate stood around her to shield her from TV cameras. According to Hammel, Ms Slama cast the crucial 33rd vote that allowed the bill to overcome a months-long filibuster by progressive senators that had brought Nebraska’s unicameral legislature practically to a standstill. The bill, signed into law by governor Jim Pillen on Monday, bans abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy, starting immediately, and all gender transition healthcare for trans people under the age of 19, starting in October. “I was hospitalised today with hyperemesis gravidarum,” Ms Slama tweeted on Friday evening. “Made it back in time to vote, and on the most divisive bill of the entire session. “Everyone put their differences aside and joined in a wall to keep my illness from the cameras. ‘Gratitude’ doesn’t even begin to cover it,” she said. In another tweet on Saturday morning, she said: “Do I like that [the photo] is out there? No. But sometimes in government, private battles end up public. I shared to address questions about my health, but also to give my colleagues credit for their kindness, especially Machaela Cavanaugh.” That last name was notable because Ms Cavanaugh, along with her progressive colleague Megan Hunt, has been one of the public faces of the 12-week filibuster that had blocked almost all legislation in this session so far. Ms Cavanaugh has described the trans healthcare ban as a stepping stone to “genocide”, telling The Independent earlier this month that it was aimed at “exterminating ‘transgender’ from existence”. Nevertheless, she was among the senators who stood in front of Ms Slama to block her from view, and later tweeted at Hammel to “delete this please”. Another Republican senator, Lou Ann Linehan, had complained that she had to miss her grandson’s preschool graduation ceremony because of the filibuster and the prolonged debate it created. Ms Hunt, who has a trans child, shot back: “If you want to see your grandson graduate from preschool, you should do that. Instead, you are here to drag out this session because you won’t come off this bill that hurts my son. You hate him more than you love your own family.” Hammel defended his decision to tweet the photo, saying: “No more public place than floor of [the] Nebraska legislature.”

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A Nebraska Republican state senator who voted for a combined anti-trans and anti-abortion bill that passed by one vote in the legislature has admitted that she didn’t pay attention to the issue. State Senator Christy Armendariz represents the 18th District in the state. Writing for New York magazine, journalist Lila Shapiro said that the senator “led me to a bench in an empty hallway” to say that she “found it puzzling that a reporter from New York would come all the way to Nebraska to cover this affair”. “I don’t watch the news or get the newspaper,” she told the magazine. “Is there anything going on I should be aware of?” The writer told Ms Armendariz that other states have passed other similar bills restricting trans and women’s reproductive rights and that an appeals court on the federal level in the Nebraska circuit had ruled that one of them was unconstitutional. “So is it a big widespread thing?” she asked the writer, adding that regular Nebraska residents were unaware of the issue. “I knocked doors for a year, and nobody brought this up,” the senator said, adding that she wished that the legislation had never been brought to the floor. For three months, a group of lawmakers in the state has ground nearly all legislative business in the state to a halt, grabbing the nation’s attention with a remarkable filibuster to stifle a bill that would end gender-affirming care for young transgender people. Late Tuesday 16 May, Republican lawmakers broke through, advancing a bill that not only bans gender-affirming care for trans people under 19 years old but also tacks on an amendment to outlaw abortion after 10 weeks of pregnancy and hands the state’s GOP-appointed medical officer the authority to set the rules for affirming care for trans youth. Hundreds of protesters filled the capital in Lincoln, standing outside the doors and in the gallery above lawmakers while chanting “one more vote to save our lives”; only one senator would have had to defect from supporters of the bill to kill the legislation. The vote – on the 78th day of a 90-day session – followed a series of manoeuvres that opponents argued were bending and breaking the rules of the state legislature to hammer through the legislation and avert the filibuster, which would allow opponents to occupy their allotted time to speak the bill to death. “What you are attempting to do today is the lowest of the absolute lows,” state Senator Machaela Cavanaugh, who spearheaded the filibuster, told Republican lawmakers. “You literally have to cheat at every moment of this debate in every possible way … You are allowing it to happen,” she added. “You do literally have blood on your hands, and if you vote for it, you will have buckets.” State Senator Megan Hunt, the first openly LGBT+ member of the state legislature and the mother of a trans child, lambasted lawmakers for their “escape routes” from the capitol to avoid facing protesters. “If you can’t go out and face them, you are not worthy,” she said. “Your legacy is filth.” Protesters surrounded the state capitol chambers in Lincoln on 19 May chanting “keep your bans off our bodies” and “save our lives” as lawmakers made their final round of votes on the bill, which passed 33-15, according to Reuters. The bill reached the exact number of votes needed to pass. Republican Governor Jim Pillen signed it into law on Monday. Before signing the bill, Mr Pillen said, “We are working to inspire Nebraskans to get in the game so that abortion is simply unthinkable in the state of Nebraska,” according to WOWT. He added that it was “an extremely historic day for Nebraska. It’s a day where it’s really simple: We’re standing up to protect our kids so our state has a bigger and brighter future. LB574 is the most significant win for [the] social conservative agenda that over a generation has seen in Nebraska. I think that’s something we need to clap and shout about”. At a show in Nebraska hours after the vote on Friday night, the artist Lizzo lambasted the legislation from the stage. “It really breaks my heart that there are young people growing up in a world that doesn’t protect them,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. ... These laws are not real. You are what’s real, and you deserve to be protected.” Ari Kohen, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, tweeted: “Hat tip to Senator Armendariz, who says she doesn’t know anything about the issue, doesn’t pay attention to current events, and wishes the bill she voted for hadn’t been introduced. It passed by 1 vote.” “These are the people who devoted an entire legislative session to taking away people’s rights in the face of massive opposition from experts and ordinary citizens. They openly admit that none of their constituents mentioned this issue to them and they don’t know much about it,” he added. “We have a handful of legislators who care enough to listen and learn. And then we have the majority, who seem not to know or care what they’re doing as long as it feels right to them and they have the votes to do it. Awful.” Journalist and author Charles Jaco tweeted that a similar assessment could be made regarding the Missouri legislature. “You have a handful of lawmakers who are serious, substantial people. The rest are various shades of know-nothing religious fanatics, grifters, and bigoted buffoons,” he tweeted. The Independent has reached out to Ms Armendariz for comment. Read More Nebraska governor to sign 12-week abortion ban, limits on gender-affirming care for minors Lizzo blasts Nebraska bill banning abortion access and gender-affirming care: ‘You deserve to be protected’ Here are the restrictions on transgender people that are moving forward in US states Nebraska governor to sign 12-week abortion ban, limits on gender-affirming care for minors Lizzo blasts Nebraska bill banning abortion access and gender-affirming care Nebraska expected to pass 12-week abortion ban, restrictions on gender-affirming care

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After an epic filibuster that blocked legislation for nearly three months, state lawmakers in Nebraska approved a Republican-led ban on abortion care at roughly 10 weeks of pregnancy, combined with a bill that bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The extraordinary maneuvers in the smallest legislative body in the country have drawn national attention, as lawmakers across the United States take up a wave of bills targeting abortion rights and LGBT+ people. Protesters surrounded the state capitol chambers in Lincoln on 19 May chanting “keep your bans off our bodies” and “save our lives” as lawmakers made their final round of votes on the bill, which now heads to the desk of Republican Governor Jim Pillen, who intends to sign it into law. At least six protesters were arrested. At a show in Nebraska hours after the vote on Friday night, the artist Lizzo lambasted the legislation from the stage. “It really breaks my heart that there are young people growing up in a world that doesn’t protect them,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. ... These laws are not real. You are what’s real, and you deserve to be protected.” LGBT+ advocates and abortion rights groups have also signalled they are prepared to sue the state to block the measure once it is signed into law. “To be clear, we refuse to accept this as our new normal,” according to a statement from ACLU of Nebraska interim director Mindy Rush Chipman. “This vote will not be the final word. We are actively exploring our options to address the harm of this extreme legislation, and that work will have our team’s full focus. This is not over, not by a long shot.” The legislation directs the state’s chief medical officer – appointed by the Republican governor – to draft the rules for how young trans people and their families can access nonsurgical affirming healthcare. It also bans abortion at 12 weeks gestational age, or roughly nine or 10 weeks, from fertilization. The bill’s passage comes roughly three months after a group of LGBT+ and abortion rights-supporting lawmakers launched a filibuster to block any legislation from advancing in the state’s unicameral legislature until a measure banning gender-affirming care was withdrawn, or until time ran out in the 90-day session. Last month, the filibuster successfully blocked a measure from anti-abortion lawmakers to ban abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Attaching another anti-abortion measure to the gender-affirming care ban gave proponents of the bill a second chance of advancing both. Opponents forcefully opposed the inclusion of an abortion ban in a bill targeting gender-affirming care, two wholly separate issues combined into one, “but you all don’t care”, state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who launched the filibuster effort in February, told lawmakers this week. “I wish the people in here cared about what they’re doing to people, but they don’t,” she said during debate. “Why are you doing this to our kids? Why are you doing this to our doctors? … Please stop.” State Sen. Megan Hunt, the first openly LGBT+ person elected to the state’s legislature, lambasted a Republican colleague who complained that she was missing her grandson graduate from preschool so she could vote on the bill. Ms Hunt, who changed her party affiliation from Democratic to Independent during this legislative session, also is the mother of a 12-year-old trans son. “If you want to see your grandson graduate from preschool, you should do that,” Ms Hunt told Republican state Sen Lou Ann Linehan. “Instead, you are here to drag out this session because you won’t come off this bill that hurts my son,” she said on 18 May. “You hate him more than you love your own family. And that’s why you’re here. … I am not asking you to sit here through late nights to vote on these bills that we’re dragging out. I’m asking you to love your family more than you hate mine.” She also eviscerated another lawmaker, state Sen. Ray Aguilar, who took issue with being labelled anti-LGBT+ because he said he has a gay daughter. Mr Aguilar voted in favour of the legislation. “You’re part of the problem, that is the scourge of hate and discrimination that your party is standing on in the middle of an ocean like it’s the most important thing in the world to them,” Ms Hunt said. “Your proximity to gayness does not make that OK.” More than a dozen states, mostly in the South, have severely restricted or effectively outlawed abortion in the year after the US Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade, which affirmed a constitutional right to abortion access. In this past week, lawmakers in North Carolina and South Carolina approved abortion bans, extending restrictions on abortion care from Texas and Oklahaoma through the entire Gulf Coast and throughout the southeast. Nebraska’s legislation also joins a nationwide campaign that has seen hundreds of bills aimed at LGBT+ people, particularly at young trans people, filed in nearly every state within the last two years. At least 15 states have enacted laws or policies banning gender-affirming care for young trans people, and more than a dozen others are considering similar measures. Court injunctions have blocked bans from going into effect in three states. More than half of all trans youth in the US between the ages of 13 and 17 are at risk of losing access to what major health organisations consider age-appropriate, medically necessary and potentially life-saving affirming healthcare in their home state, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The onslaught of legislation and volatile political debate surrounding the bills have also negatively impacted the mental health of an overwhelming majority of young trans and nonbinary people, according to polling from The Trevor Project and Morning Consult. A separate survey from The Trevor Project found that 41 per cent of trans and nonbinary youth have seriously considered attempting suicide over the last year. If you are based in the US and seek LGBT+ affirming mental health support, resources are available from Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) and the LGBT Hotline (888-843-4564), as well as The Trevor Project (866-488-7386 or text START to 678-678). If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the US, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. Read More How one North Carolina lawmaker's defection from the Democratic Party upended abortion protections Trans rights groups pledge Texas lawsuit over gender-affirming care ban: ‘Anti-science, discriminatory fear-mongering’ Republican-appointed federal judges grill FDA in mifepristone hearing Anti-abortion laws harm patients facing dangerous and life-threatening complications, report finds