LINCOLN, Nebraska (LifeSiteNews) —  A liberal Nebraska Republican legislator wants to limit the state’s already minimal protections for preborn babies.

Senator Merv Riepe, who previously helped kill a six-week abortion ban, introduced legislation to include “fetal anomalies” as an exception to the state’s 12-week abortion ban.

His proposal would include a “fatal fetal anomaly” exception to the state’s law that also allows women to abort their babies in cases of “medical emergency,” incest, or rape. He wanted this included last year during the debate over the 12-week bill.

He said his proposal is meant to head off support for loosening abortion restrictions even further. “While Riepe said his bill will ‘face resistance’ in the conservative Unicameral, he feels that it could reduce support for a ballot initiative in Nebraska that, if passed by voters, would permit an abortion until a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, which occurs at about 23 weeks,” the Nebraska Examiner reported.

Riepe has made known his support for pushing the Republican Party to support the destruction of innocent human life in the womb. “We must embrace the future of reproductive rights [sic],” the liberal Republican previously stated, explaining his opposition to the six-week abortion prohibition.

His current proposal would mean even more babies could get aborted under the state’s relatively lax standards – close to 90 percent of abortions already happen prior to 12 weeks, according to the 2021 and 2022 state reports on abortion.

Pro-lifers stress, however, that a baby’s inherent human dignity and right to life does not come from the circumstances of his or her conception. Medical experts have also confirmed that direct abortion is never medically necessary. These points were echoed by the Nebraska Catholic Conference, which opposes Riepe’s bill.

“Marion Miner of the Nebraska Catholic Conference said that babies who receive a prenatal diagnosis deserve the ‘same dignity’ as other babies, ‘and not simply abandoned to abortion,’” the Nebraska Examiner reported.

Planned Parenthood also opposes the legislation for reportedly being too strict.

The legislative session runs just about 60 days, wrapping up at the end of February.

‘Fetal anomalies’ have been exploited by pro-abortion groups

Pro-abortion groups have sought to capitalize on “fetal anomalies” in court cases meant to weaken, if not obliterate, state abortion laws. For example, pro-abortion groups used the tragic story of Kate Cox and her baby diagnosed with trisomy 18 to try to weaken Texas’ abortion laws, though that effort failed.

Parents of children with trisomy 18, a condition that causes developmental delays and often leads to a death within a few years of birth, urged Cox and her husband to recognize the dignity of their preborn baby. Cox traveled out of state to abort her baby after legal challenges failed.

Prior to Cox’s abortion, LifeSiteNews director of advocacy Tim Jackson published a heartfelt plea to Kate Cox urging her to think twice about aborting her child. “I know how difficult it can be to contemplate the fact that your child might not live.” Jackson’s son made it to 37 weeks of development before passing away.

“Any baby with a life-limiting diagnosis should have the highest protection coming from all directions. The parents, the family, the hospital, and the law. Every life is worth protecting, no matter how long or short,” Nicole LeBlanc told LifeSiteNews. She gave birth to conjoined twins who were baptized and confirmed Catholic before dying soon after birth.

“No matter how the baby is developing. We live in a time of modern medicine,” LeBlanc said. “We live in a time where we can make the baby comfortable for as long as we can instead of slaughtering the innocent in the place they are most protected.”

The dignity and human rights of babies do not change based on if they would survive one second or one year outside of the womb. But in any case, a fetal anomaly is not guaranteed to end in a short life.

A surgeon out of Michigan Medicine (the University of Michigan’s medical system), was able to help 26 of 28 babies with trisomy 18 he treated survive, amounting to a 93 percent survival rate. The regular survival rate is around 5 percent, but Dr. Glenn Green obtained the survival through specific interventions, as detailed by LifeSiteNews.