Nebraska's Dueling Abortion Ballot Questions

Nebraska currently has a ban on abortions past the 12th week of pregnancy. That particular ban was passed last year, changing the cutoff down from 24 weeks and narrowly avoiding 6-week and total bans. 

Initiative 434 would enshrine the 12 week ban in the Nebraska State Constitution, but would not prevent a more restrictive ban from being enacted. (There are several exceptions included) Over 300 petition signers claim that they were lied to by petition circulators and signed the petition under false pretenses. 

Initiative 439 would add a state constitutional right to abortion up to fetal viability (around 24 weeks) with "fetal viability" defined as “…the point in pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the patient's treating health care practitioner, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures", which was the national standard before Roe vs. Wade was repealed. 

Abortion opponents have been scurrying around to try to misrepresent Initiative 439, claiming, among other ridiculous points, that "the wording in the measure would give human traffickers and abusers the right to subject women to forced or coerced abortions and allow unlicensed medical professionals to influence a woman's decision." and painting doctors who perform abortion as "the abortion industry". 

Some proponents of Initiative 434 characterize it as a "middle ground" between the anti-abortion and abortion rights camps that creates reasonable limits and exceptions". I'd consider that point if it weren't for the fact that abortion opponents don't compromise and view any "middle ground" as merely a step toward a total ban. They'll continue to chip away, as they have in other states, until there is a total ban. 

Initiative 434 is nothing but an effort to confuse the issue. We should have been allowed to have an up or down vote on abortion rights without having this initiative, which misrepresents the issue. I had read that whichever initiative receives more more votes would "win", but there's more detail than that: 

"For a ballot initiative to pass, it must receive a majority of supporting votes and at least 35% of total votes during the election. If both abortion-related amendments pass, the one with the most votes will be amended into the Nebraska Constitution." - to restate, to pass, an initiative must (1) have more "For" votes than "Against" votes (2) the "For" votes must be greater or equal than 35% of the total votes cast in the election statewide and (3) the "For" votes must be greater than the "For" votes of the competing initiative.
A side note - are the people who are totally against abortion going to vote for Initiative 434, which adds legal abortion to the state constitution?