The bill would have required the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to maintain the videos on its website, along with existing information about fetal development, alternative options to abortion and places that provide free ultrasounds.

The bill had three co-sponsors, Sens. Lydia Brasch of Bancroft, Tom Brewer of Gordon and Steve Erdman of Bayard. None offered to take over the bill, leaving it without a sponsor.

Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, which had backed the proposal, called the situation frustrating.

“If the Legislature is full of pro-life senators, why wouldn’t someone pick it up?” she asked. “It’s very disappointing.”

Schmit-Albin acknowledged that getting the bill passed would have been unlikely, but she said it would have been useful to bring out the issues at a public hearing.

The next step will be to talk with HHS officials about voluntarily adding the videos to the department website, she said. Past agency leaders had been reluctant to add the information without backing from a state law, she said.

Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said Speaker of the Legislature Jim Scheer advised committees to kill any of Kintner’s bills that were not adopted by other senators. HHS committee members voted 7-0 on the motion to kill LB 59.

martha.stoddard@owh.com, 402-473-9583