The woman who will end abortion no matter what

Suzanne Geist has dedicated her career to fully outlawing abortion without exception for rape or incest. She was vocal in her opposition to these exceptions when she co-sponsored a total ban in 2022 as a state senator, proudly explaining her intention to force even girls below the legal age of consent to remain pregnant when they don't want to be. She even voted to limit court cases on the sexual abuse of children.

How did she choose these priorities? This website documents her reasons, using her words and actions from the public record.

Geist (speaking) surrounded by Nebraska Family Alliance staff, including executive director Karen Bowling (center)

In a 2020 interview on the Nebraska Family Alliance podcast, Suzanne Geist explained the origin of her anti-abortion feelings: the time her son impregnated a 15-year-old child.

To understand why this event is the root of her opposition to abortion, it is important to know that Geist has very specific ideas about what pregnant women without money deserve. She explained these ideas during a 2020 debate on an anti-abortion law that she introduced:

those who are less fortunate than us. I believe in sharing what we have in giving to those who are less fortunate and helping those-- the women who we're talking about in this bill. I believe it is our-- WILLIAMS: One minute. GEIST: --personal-- thank you, Mr. President. It, it is our personal responsibility to reach out and help women in this situation. The difference is I don't always see government as being the best solution. I think what changes people's lives are personal relationships, not government relationships. Now, there are times that that's different. It's a good thing for government to step in. So I'm not gonna say there's not a role for government here. Because obviously, I'm asking government to step in and correct something that I believe is inhumane and should not be happening. However, the care of those individuals belong to us personally. Thank you, Mr. President.

Geist says a pregnant girl or woman should receive help only if someone with a "personal relationship" to her chooses to offer her help. If a young woman thinks she doesn't want to be pregnant, the government should "step in and correct" her by denying her an abortion. But, the government should not offer financial help to support her pregnancy or her child. Instead, the opportunity to offer support "belongs to" generous people like Geist herself.

The young girl who was pregnant with Geist's grandchild was Geist's chance to display the personal generosity she brags about. Because of her family money (her husband is a wealth manager) Geist must have found it easy to support the pregnancy financially. In the podcast interview, she says this positive experience sparked her anti-abortion policy work. Offering this 15-year-old girl support was so rewarding for Geist that it inspired her to use the law to make abortion unavailable to all girls in a similar position.

A reason to be vague

Geist reiterated her story of supporting the pregnant child in 2022 when she testified in favor of LB 933, the bill she co-sponsored to wholly outlaw abortion. She said she was "100 percent in support" of the legislation barring abortion even for victims of rape and incest. "I do believe every life, regardless of how it's conceived, is valuable and God-breathed"

The vague phrase "regardless of how it's conceived" alludes to some less-than-ideal causes of pregnancy, without naming what they might be. Geist neatly avoids drawing attention to acts of sexual violence, or to the fact that her bill forces women to be pregnant by their assailant. Yet this is the reality. When Geist says abortion would "devalue that creation," she means the creation which occurs during rape.

Click to watch video of Geist on banning abortion with no exceptions in LB 933

Although Geist's testimony that day evaded words like rape, her allies in the Nebraska Family Alliance did not. Their LB 933 testimony specifically named their intention to deny women abortions after rape. Though better known for its decades of anti-LGBT lobbying, the Nebraska Family Alliance had by this time become the most public booster of Geist's dream of outlawing abortion without exception.

"horrified by the testimony"

Geist was cagy during her testimony on the subject of sexual abuse of children — yet, her feelings about this topic are clear. Earlier in 2022 she voted not to remove the statute of limitations on sexual assault of a child. Geist is one of only two senators who voted against this bill, which was introduced by a Republican.

That Republican senator, Rich Pahls, observed that the average age at which a survivor of childhood sexual assault comes forward is 52, by which time the perpetrator is often deceased and cannot be prosecuted. So, the only legal recourse available to the victim is a civil court case against people or organizations who facilitated or covered up the assault. Nebraska's statute of limitations for this ends at 33 years of age. Pahls's bill, LB833, would have removed the limit, giving people the time they need to come to terms with assault they face as children.

HHS committee hearings wrapped up so I'm watching LB833 in judiciary and I'm horrified by the testimony of the Catholic Conference.

The main opposition to the bill was the Nebraska Catholic church, which has been found by the state attorney general to systematically protect members who sexually abuse children in hundreds of cases. The bill applied only to future cases of assault, not those that have already occured. By conceding to the church's pressure, Geist chose to shield people who cover up sex crimes against children for decades into the future.

Geist's next step

Geist was not successful in her 2022 attempt to totally outlaw abortion in Nebraska. Her fallback strategy has been to restrict or ban individual abortion techniques, thus chipping away legal abortion one procedure at a time. Nebraska's current law against D&E abortion was sponsored and prioritized by Geist. She created a bill to greatly restrict medication abortion, and to require every abortion to be reported to the government.

Now, Geist is running for mayor of Lincoln. She was asked if she would support a citywide ban on abortion, as other cities in Nebraska have done. She refused to answer this question, saying "abortion is not a local issue, in my opinion, and will not become an issue of my campaign."

She has proven unable to resist making it a campaign issue. During a recent debate focused on Lincoln's Black community, Geist remarked:

"Those of you who are African American, let me speak to you. You are 4.78% of our population, but 21% of abortions are from your community. Twenty million of you have been aborted. Is that positive for your community? No, it's not! That's why I'm pro-life. It's not because I want to restrict women; it's because I want you to be free.

Conclusion

Although she has refused to directly say what her policy on abortion would be as mayor, the kind of government that Suzanne Geist wants is clear from her actions: In the world she votes for, young girls will have neither medical nor legal control of their bodies if they are impregnated or sexually assaulted. Instead, pregnant women and girls in need of help will "belong to" rich benefactors like Geist herself. Government's only purpose shall be to "correct" women who try to "devalue" their pregnancy, not to offer any kind of help to them. Government will not allow people who are raped as children to seek redress. Help will come only from the paternalistic whims of individual rich people.

Geist is proud that she offered help to someone in her own family. If elected, she promises not to help yours.