28 April 2023 , 14:44
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Abortion bans in two deeply conservative US states have each fallen short of passing legislature by a single vote.
Bans in Nebraska and South Carolina both fell a single vote short of passing in legislatures amid heated debates among Republicans
In Nebraska, as the last vote was cast and abortion is currently banned after 20 weeks, cheers were heard outside the legislative chamber - with opponents to the bill waving signs and chanting: "Whose house? Our house!"
In South Carolina, Republican senator Sandy Senn criticised the Majority Leader Shane Massey for repeatedly "taking us off a cliff on abortion."
(AP)"The only thing that we can do when you all, you men in the chamber, metaphorically keep slapping women by raising abortion age again and again, is for us to slap you back with our words," she said.
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The proposal in Nebraska was backed by Republican Governor Jimp Pillen. This proposal is unlikely to move forward this year after the bill banning abortion around the sixth week of pregnancy fell one vote short of breaking a filibuster.
In South Carolina, abortion remains legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy. The latest vote marks the third time a near-total abortion ban has failed in the Republican-led Senate chamber since the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v Wade last summer.
The state has increasingly served patients in a region where Republican officials have otherwise curtailed abortion access. Six Republicans helped block motions to end debate and defeated any chance of the bill passing this year.
Thirteen other states have bans in place on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Those states are:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Idaho
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Four other states have bans throughout pregnancy where enforcement is blocked by courts. The majority of those bans were adopted in anticipation of Roe v Wade being overturned, and most do have exceptions for rape or incest.
Pat Neal, 72, of Lincoln, was among those cheering the result of the Nebraska vote. She, like others who turned out, expressed shock at the bill's failure.
"This gives me hope for the future," she said. "It gives me hope that the direction we've been seeing - across the country - could turn around."
The bill failed to get the crucial 33rd vote when Sen. Merv Riepe, a former hospital administrator from Ralston, abstained. Riepe was a cosigner of the bill but expressed concern this year that a six-week ban might not give women enough time to know they were pregnant.
Riepe introduced a measure Thursday that would have extended the proposed ban to 12 weeks and add to the bill's list of exceptions any fetal anomalies deemed incompatible with life.
When he received pushback from fellow Republicans, Riepe warned his conservative colleagues they should heed signs that abortion will galvanize women to vote them out of office.
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"We must embrace the future of reproductive rights," he said.
Independent South Carolina Sen. Mia McLeod criticized leaders who prioritized the near-total ban over efforts to make South Carolina the 49th state in the country with a law allowing harsher punishments for violent hate crimes.
McLeod, who shared during a previous abortion debate that she had been raped, said it is unfortunate that women must reveal intimate experiences to "enlighten and engage" men.
"Just as rape is about power and control, so is this total ban," McLeod said Thursday. "Those who continue to push legislation like this are raping us again with their indifference, violating us again with their righteous indignation, taunting us again with their insatiable need to play God while they continue to pass laws that are ungodly."