1/9/2020 Letter to Gov Ricketts about proclamation for prayer to end abortion

Relevant link: https://governor.nebraska.gov/press/gov-ricketts-declares-roe-v-wade-anniversary-statewide-day-prayer-end-abortion January 9th, 2020

Governor Ricketts, 

Your proclamation to create a statewide call to prayer to end abortion is unconstitutional, unnecessary, and unrepresentative of the people of Nebraska.

Article I-4 of the Nebraska Constitution says: 

All persons have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No person shall be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship against his consent, and no preference shall be given by law to any religious society, nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted

Your promotion of your own religious beliefs over that of others in our state is shameful. There are many who do believe in prayer, but believe in a woman's right to choose. There are others who do not believe in a deity/deities who resent the religious nature in which you govern. Being told by you to pray is an insult to anyone’s convictions. 

The amount of time and energy it takes to create a proclamation such as yours is wasteful to Nebraska taxpayers, and only serves to make your anti-choice lobbyists happy. The lobbying money you receive and the proclamations you make seem to be a violation of Article III-6 about conflict of interest.  

You call Nebraska a pro-life state, but I am pro-choice as are many Nebraskans I know. Each time you and other (male) lawmakers, who do not have medical degrees, make attacks on women’s right to choose with new legislature, you endanger my rights, as created in Article I-1:

All persons are by nature free and independent, and have certain inherent and inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, … and such rights shall not be denied or infringed by the state or any subdivision thereof. 

As a woman, I have a right to decide if/how/when children will be a part of my life. There are a multitude  of reasons that women may choose an abortion and each reason is valid and does not need to be explained to or approved by you or anyone else not medically involved. Women are not served by a blanket law that endangers them and takes away their liberties. When you take away women’s choices for your own moral justification, you are breaking your vow to uphold the Constitution. I don’t expect you to understand what it means to be a woman, but it’d be helpful if you attempted to allow us our liberties guaranteed us by the Constitutions of Nebraska and the United States. 

Being forced to gestate a fetus against my will is a violation of Article 1-2 in which Slavery is prohibited: 

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. 

Yes, that may sound a bit extreme to relate gestation to slavery (keep in mind that rape and slavery went hand in hand in the antebellum south), but I have no faith in religious-based lawmakers and know they will not stop until they take away all access to abortion, therefore forcing women to birth children they do not want, endangering women and their families. My rights as a human being supersede that of a potential fetus/human that cannot be in my body without my consent. Your religious convictions do not supersede my rights.

I insist that you cease and desist with your religious-based proclamations related to prayer and/or abortion. Please refrain from making proclamations and laws that are unconstitutional, unnecessary, harmful to women and blur the much-needed lines between church and state. 

It’d be swell if you rescind your proclamation and admit that it does infringe on our constitutional rights as Nebraskans. Pretty sure you won’t, but I’m holding you accountable for your frivolous “governing”. And I vote.

Sincerely, 

A Pro-Choice, Non-Religious Nebraskan,