Professor: Lack of filibuster-proof majority doesn't necessarily mean no abortion ban

OMAHA, Neb.—UNO political science professor Dr. Greg Petrow has looked at the election results of races for the Nebraska Legislature.

He doesn't see Republicans running the table in the near future.

"My understanding is that Republicans need 33 votes to break a filibuster," Petrow said. "Last session, they were one vote shy, and they were hoping to pick up that extra vote. They didn't pick it up."

So that means a law banning abortion in the state is out of the question, right? Not necessarily.

Petrow said the Legislature's lawmakers are not as polarized as those in Congress.

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat, echoed that. She said it’s all about coalition building when it comes to filibusters.

“The people who are filibustering and the people who are pushing the issue forward all have to build a coalition," Cavanaugh said. "It's not about what your party registration is because, as I said, we don't have party leadership telling us how we're going to vote like they do in D.C."

She said when it comes to potential legislation on abortion, she doesn’t know if it will be filibuster proof.

"Like any issue, until there's an actually bill to be debated, it's hard to say without knowing what is in the legislation," she said.

Petrow says laws republicans would like to pass are not dead in the water.

“It's certainly possible that the Democrats—the sort of non-Republicans, the out party—they may be willing to negotiate on kind of watered-down versions of these kinds of bills," he said.

So in essence, even if the Republicans don’t get their filibuster-proof majority, it’s still possible to see laws banning abortion in Nebraska or allowing folks to conceal carry without a permit.

Fox 42 reached out to Republican senators Julie Slama and Lou Ann Linehan for comment, but did not hear back.