Pete Ricketts on Abortion and Reproductive Health: The Planned Parenthood Medicaid Cutoff, the Abortion Pill Letter, LB 814 and Nebraska's 12-Week Ban

On July 1, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which barred federal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, after voting against removing that provision the day before. In that year Planned Parenthood reported Medicaid visits dropping by 25% or over 250,000 visits nationwide. On March 25, 2026, Ricketts voted against taking up a resolution to overturn the Veterans Affairs rule that ended abortion care and counseling for veterans, including after rape or incest. In October 2025 he signed a letter with 50 other Republican senators asking the FDA to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone.

As Nebraska governor, Ricketts signed LB 814 in 2020, which made performing a common second-trimester abortion procedure a class IV felony. In 2024, as a senator, he was the single donor behind the first $500,000 raised by the campaign to write Nebraska's 12-week abortion ban into the state constitution, which voters approved. Under the 12-week ban, some Nebraskans have had to travel to another state for care.

Ricketts also voted to confirm the officials whose agencies withdrew federal guidance on emergency abortions, withheld family planning grants for most of 2025 and stopped paying for troops to travel for abortion care.

Pete Ricketts's Votes, Letter and Governor's Record on Abortion and Reproductive Health

• Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Law That Cut Off Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Payments for a Year. On July 1, 2025, Pete Ricketts voted yes on H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50-50 with the Vice President's vote, so it would have failed without his vote. Section 71113 barred federal Medicaid payments to large nonprofit family planning providers that also offer abortions for the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment, July 4, 2025. Medicaid patients could no longer use their coverage at those clinics for birth control, STI tests or cancer screening. Planned Parenthood said Nearly 30 health centers, which served roughly 41,000 birth control patients, have been forced to close in that year, and that almost 25% fewer birth control pill packs were dispensed. The ban expired in July 2026, but a Florida clinic in Lakeland isn’t expected to reopen (AP). The same law's Medicaid work requirements, starting in 2027, threaten to eliminate Medicaid coverage for 2.1 million women aged 19-49, the Guttmacher Institute estimates.
• Ricketts Voted Against Removing the Planned Parenthood Cutoff in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Ricketts voted no on Senator Patty Murray's motion to waive the Budget Act for Amendment 2771, which would have struck the Planned Parenthood provision from the bill. The motion failed 49-51. Had it passed, Medicaid patients would have kept their coverage at the clinics where, according to Planned Parenthood, two-thirds (66%) of health center closures occurred in rural areas or places short of doctors in the following year.
• Ricketts Voted to Keep the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans in March 2026. On March 25, 2026, Ricketts voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 103, a resolution to overturn the Department of Veterans Affairs rule on reproductive health services. The motion to proceed failed 48-50, so the resolution never reached a vote. The rule, effective January 30, 2026, was issued to reinstate the exclusions on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package, including for CHAMPVA family members. It ended a 2022 policy that allowed VA medical personnel to conduct abortions in cases of rape or incest, and the VA now prohibits the procedure at VA medical facilities unless the life of the mother is endangered (Military Times). Senator Mazie Hirono said the rule limits care for 460,000 women veterans of reproductive age.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm Doug Collins, Whose Department Wrote the Rule Ending Abortion Care for Veterans. On February 4, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Collins's department issued the final rule that took effect in January 2026, under which a veteran who becomes pregnant after rape or incest can no longer get an abortion, or counseling about one, through the VA.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Withdrew Federal Guidance on Emergency Abortion Care. On April 3, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Two months later, Healio reported that CMS is rescinding a Biden administration-era policy on abortion care for women in medical emergencies, guidance that had told emergency room doctors that when an abortion is the treatment needed to stabilize a patient, the physician must provide that treatment. In Texas, a state with a ban, ProPublica found that blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54%.
• Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote to Confirm Pete Hegseth, Whose Pentagon Stopped Paying for Troops to Travel for Abortion Care. On January 24, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. The vote was 50-50 and the Vice President broke the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without Ricketts's vote. Days later NBC News reported that the Pentagon has rescinded a Biden administration policy that reimbursed service members and dependents for travel to states where abortion is legal. The policy had covered troops and families who had to cross state lines because they were stationed in a state where abortion care was outlawed or unavailable.
• Ricketts Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Withheld Family Planning Money for Most of 2025. On February 13, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. That spring his department withheld grant payments to 144 Planned Parenthood sites in 20 states under Title X, the federal family planning program for low-income patients. The money was released in December 2025, but Planned Parenthood says dozens of clinics that closed because of the withheld money are unlikely to reopen (Michigan Advance).
• Ricketts Voted Against a Budget Pledge to Protect Medicaid Care for Mothers and Children in February 2025. On February 20, 2025, Ricketts voted no on an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would have set up a reserve fund for protecting access to maternal and pediatric health care. It was rejected 49 to 51. Medicaid covers 41% of all US births, the Guttmacher Institute reports, and the budget process that followed produced the 2025 law's Medicaid cuts.
• Ricketts Signed a Letter Asking the FDA to Restrict the Abortion Pill in October 2025. In October 2025, Ricketts was one of 51 Republican senators who signed a letter to Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, and the signer list includes Pete Ricketts (R-NE). The letter asked them to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone and all its generic versions and to suspend the distribution of mifepristone and all generic versions as an imminent hazard. NOTUS reported that the requests would heavily restrict access to abortion pills nationwide. In a KFF poll in June 2026, Americans said they oppose laws that would ban mifepristone nationwide (65%). The FDA's re-evaluation of the drug's safety is now underway, KFF reported.
• As Governor, Ricketts Signed LB 814, Making a Common Second-Trimester Abortion Procedure a Felony. In August 2020, as Nebraska governor, Pete Ricketts signed LB 814, and JURIST reported: "Nebraska governor signs bill banning second trimester abortion procedure". The law bars dilation and evacuation, which JURIST called a common abortion procedure, for patients seeking a second-trimester abortion except in a medical emergency. The law makes performing a D&E a class IV felony, punishable by up to two years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine, so a Nebraska doctor who uses the method in the second trimester risks prison.
• Ricketts Gave $500,000 to Put Nebraska's 12-Week Abortion Ban in the State Constitution. In April 2024 the campaign to write Nebraska's 12-week ban into the state constitution reported $500,000 in total cash, all from a single donation, made by Ricketts, Nebraska Public Media reported. Ricketts said: "I support the Protect Women and Children ballot initiative because it protects Nebraska values". After the Legislature's 2023 law banned most abortions after 12 weeks, voters approved language added to the state Constitution that bans most abortions after the first trimester in 2024. An Omaha woman whose fetus faced severe birth defects had to travel to another state to terminate her pregnancy because she was 16 weeks pregnant.

What the Abortion Limits Pete Ricketts Signed and Financed Mean for Nebraska

• Abortion care in Nebraska. Under the 12-week law, abortions provided by Nebraska doctors dropped by 24% in the seven months after it took effect, from an average of 158 abortions per month, down from 209 in the same period in 2022, the Flatwater Free Press reported from state health department data.
• Constitutional ban. Since the 2024 vote that Ricketts helped finance, the 12-week limit is in the Nebraska constitution: voters approved language added to the state Constitution that bans most abortions after the first trimester. Initiative Measure 434 passed with 509,288 votes for and 417,624 against, according to the Nebraska Secretary of State's official canvass of the November 2024 election.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Abortion and reproductive health

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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