Conservative dissenters block abortion limits in Nebraska, South Carolina

Strict new abortion restrictions failed to advance in two conservative-dominated legislatures on Thursday, signaling a mounting fear among some Republicans that abortion bans could lead to political backlash.

A near-total ban on abortion failed in South Carolina, just hours before a six-week ban fizzled in Nebraska. Abortion remains legal in both states until 22 weeks of pregnancy.

In lengthy and often impassioned speeches on the South Carolina Senate floor, the state’s five female senators - three Republicans and two Democrats - decried what would have been a near-total ban on abortion. One, Sen. Sandy Senn (R), likened the implications to the dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which women are treated as property of the state.

Abortion laws, Senn said, “have always been, each and every one of them, about control - plain and simple. And in the Senate, the males have all the control.”

While it was women who helped defeat the measure in South Carolina, in Nebraska it was an 80-year-old man who stalled it. Sen. Merv Riepe, a longtime Republican who would have been the decisive vote to advance the bill to a final round of voting, abstained over his concern that the six-week ban might not give women enough time to know they are pregnant.

Riepe told the Flatwater Free Press that he was concerned the Nebraska bill would be viewed as a total ban. “At the end of the day, I need to look back and be able to say to myself, ‘Did you do the best?’” Riepe told the paper. “No group came to me, asking me to do this. This is of my own beliefs, my own commitments.”

Riepe’s move led to a personal callout from Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R).

“I call on Senator Merv Riepe to make a motion to reconsider and stand by the commitments to Life he has made in the past,” Pillen said in a statement.

Thursday’s events caught the attention of national advocates on both sides of the issue, who have been tracking the fast-changing abortion landscape since Roe v. Wade was overturned last June. The ruling triggered a series of abortion bans across the South and Midwest and brought one the country’s most emotional issues to the forefront of the political debate.

Conservatives have pushed GOP leaders to seize the opportunity to enact strict bans, but voters across the country have repeatedly demonstrated their strong support for abortion rights, striking down antiabortion amendments even in conservative states like Kentucky and Kansas.

“This really shows that even in red states winning is still possible,” said Ianthe Metzger, director of state advocacy communications at Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “We do know that banning abortion is unpopular.”

In South Carolina, Republicans failed to bring the near-total ban to the governor’s desk after the Republican-led House passed it in February. They didn’t have the votes in the Senate to end a filibuster, effectively killing the bill for the year. However, a separate six-week ban in South Carolina already passed the Senate and could still become law this session if the House passes the bill before it ends in six days.

“It’s up to the House now,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R) told reporters after the near-total ban failed. “They have the ability to prevent thousands of abortions in South Carolina.”

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), speaking to reporters Wednesday called on the legislature to “make a decision that will be acceptable to the vast majority of people in our state.” His office did not respond to a Washington Post inquiry about whether he believed the near-total ban went too far.

During a particularly heated debate, some Republican lawmakers opposed to the near-total ban said that abortion foes sent them plastic spines and notes urging the recipients to “grow a spine.” The move only seemed to strengthen their resolve.

South Carolina state Sen. Katrina Shealy (R) blasted the plastic spines as “the worst example of lobbying” she had seen, according to the Post & Courier, adding that “I’ve got one hell of a spine already but now I’ve got another backup.” At least one of the models remained on a Senate desk as the debate over the near-total ban was underway.

South Carolina lawmakers spent much of the legislative session at an impasse over how to legislate abortion after the state Supreme Court in January struck down a 2021 law prohibiting the procedure at six weeks.

Hanging over the debate has been the concern among some Republicans that even a ban that might pass legal muster would alienate voters.

The 2022 midterms, in which a number of Democrats won competitive races after making abortion rights a central issue, were widely viewed as a danger sign for Republicans.

Some lawmakers took note of public opinion long before November. Last summer, debate on abortion restrictions came to a standstill in South Carolina and West Virginia, after moderate Republicans urged caution, warning their colleagues that abortion bans could alienate voters.

West Virginia passed a near-total ban several weeks later, but only after moderates pushed to eliminate any criminal penalties for doctors.

Several Republican-led states have successfully pushed through abortion restrictions this year, despite public opinion. In Wyoming and North Dakota, lawmakers passed new legislation outlawing almost all abortions. And Florida’s Republican-led legislature passed a six-week abortion ban earlier this month, which was signed into law hours later by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

In a region where most states have greatly curtailed access in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade, South Carolina has emerged as an unlikely refuge for the procedure, with out-of-state patients making up half of all abortions performed in the state so far this year, according to provisional data from the state Department of Health & Environmental Control.

The flow of out-of-state patients was expected to intensify in the wake of recent legislative moves in nearby states.

Senators who favored the ban in South Carolina wanted to stem the increase in abortions and out-of-state patients. Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R) compared the number of abortions to school shootings, saying that “if we had that effect of school shootings, people would be going nuts - understandably so.”

The South Carolina bill contained exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies or when abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.

Senn was the only South Carolina Republican senator to also vote against the six-week ban passed by the Senate, preferring a ban after the first trimester.

Other female senators echoed her concern about their lack of representation in the halls of power.

“The total ban that’s being debated here today clearly places the rights of a fetus over the rights of the women and girls who will be forced by our male-dominated legislature to carry that fetus to term,” said Sen. Mia McLeod. “To be blunt, the majority has no frame of reference. There’s only five of us in this body who have actually given birth.”

After the South Carolina bill died Thursday, Students for Life Action, the political wing of the Students for Life antiabortion group, posted on Twitter, telling supporters “not to be fooled by fake pro-life Republicans.”

“South Carolina SHOULD have a filibuster-proof majority in order to pass this legislation, but some spineless Republicans are protecting the abortion lobby’s agenda,” the tweet read.

Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said the bill’s failure was a “temporary reprieve.” The six-week ban is still looming.

In Lincoln, Neb., where lawmakers are technically nonpartisan but generally have a party affiliation, conservatives said that all options will be under discussion in the future.

“You shoot for something, and you see what people think, and it seemed like just right now the heartbeat bill wasn’t quite right,” said state Sen. Ben Hansen, who chairs the committee that advanced the bill earlier this year.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June, Hansen said lawmakers across the country have been assessing the temperature of their state and trying to determine what limits on abortion can pass. He thinks a 12-week ban would be an easier bill to pass.

Abortion rights groups were relieved the procedure would be preserved for now. While they weren’t sure how each senator would vote, some advocates knew a number of conservative senators were not happy with the bill, said Andi Curry Grubb, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska.

“They had concerns. They had issues,” Curry Grubb said. “They were worried about the impact that it would have, but we also know that the pressure of party politics is intense.”