For most of our lives, Nebraska has generally been a live-and-let-live kind of state. It's been the kind of place where we want our politicians to be fiscally conservative - but on social issues, we'd just as soon they stay out of our lives.
With these facts in mind, it's with some shame that we also have to acknowledge two short-sighted groups who aren't acting like real Nebraskans at all.
The first group is the anti-abortion people who continue to try and force their idea of so-called "smaller government" into our bedrooms and inside our bodies. We've discussed their true nature at length before, including why they are truthfully not "pro-life", but rather are "anti-choice."
The second embarrassing group is those Nebraska state legislators who are obviously more concerned with pandering for votes from the anti-choice crowd than seeing to the needs of their constituents.
In case you missed it, the conservative-when-it-suits-him state Sen. Tony Fulton followed the lead of other narrow-minded lawmakers on Tuesday by cramming through some of his pet legislation onto the floor of the legislature at the last moment.
His proposed bill, LB521, would ban a procedure known as telemedicine abortions from being allowed in Nebraska. It's now up for a full vote of the Unicameral.
In general, we're not in favor of remote medicine if the option of a live physician is available. But sometimes, that's simply not possible.
As long-time Nebraska residents know, ours is a big state, with lots of open spaces between some of our smaller towns. Many of our smaller towns these days don't even have a doctor.
With the advent of distance medicine - what the proposed bill calls telemedicine - some smaller Nebraska towns have begun to see the promise of non-emergency, quick medical care being available in their towns again, through multi-purpose telemedicine clinics. Such proposals to add care facilities have been discussed recently by several groups, including Planned Parenthood.
It's likely though, that if this bill passes, those plans will never be more than just plans - and once again, rural Nebraska towns will be left at an even further medical disadvantage.
We understand that the topic of abortion is one that brings about strong emotions. We remind you once again, abortion continues to be a legal medical procedure in the United States. Anti-choice groups are well aware of that fact. Instead of working within the system to decrease the number of women who have unwanted pregnancies, they persist in foisting legislation on us that makes it more and more difficult for a woman to choose the option of SAFE, LEGAL abortions, should she choose to do so. One suspects that if the anti-choice crowd is ever successful in passing a nationwide abortion ban, the next thing they will go after is the availability of artificial birth control.
We can't understand the blind hatred and myopic focus of many in the anti-choice cabal. They would deny a better way to deliver medical care to their fellow Nebraskans who live in rural areas, just so that they can restrict the choices of others in the same way they've chosen to restrict their own choices. By that logic, vegans should also be able to restrict what the rest of us eat - an idea that we find abhorrent.
Nebraska has used the state slogan, "The Good Life" for many, many years - and most of the time, we tend to agree that it's a good place to live.
However, when some of our fellow citizens want to strangle the choices of their neighbors due to their own fanatical beliefs - and when many of our legislators are willing to help them pull tight those strings - we wonder how much longer we're really be able to call it the good life.
