GOP lawmakers in Nebraska and South Carolina are renewing their push to strengthen restrictions on abortions two weeks after previous bills were defeated.
Nebraska state Sen. Ben Hansen, a Republican, has added a 12-week abortion ban as an amendment (pdf) to a separate bill that seeks to restrict transgender surgeries for minors, known as the “Let Them Grow Act.” That abortion ban re-up includes exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies.
This move has been criticized by opponents as breaking Nebraska’s single-topic bill rule. However, proponents disagree, arguing it’s permitted since both issues are related to medical procedures, KOLN reported. State Sen. George Dungan, a Democrat, disagreed.
“The only two things that I see that these bills have in common is the government standing between a doctor and patients, and I oppose that in pretty much every concept,” Dungan told KOLN.
Hansen’s amendment aims to resurrect a failed legislation that sought to introduce what is sometimes called a “heartbeat” bill. It would have decreased Nebraska’s current 20-week abortion cut-off to six weeks. However, that measure fell just one vote short of breaking a filibuster to the cheers of opponents outside the chamber.
Republican state Sen. Merv Riepe, 80, who originally co-sponsored the bill, abstained from the vote. He was concerned that a six-week ban wasn’t enough time to allow a woman to know if she is pregnant. His attempt to introduce an amendment to ban abortions after 12 weeks wasn’t given a vote.
Riepe was publicly reprimanded by Republicans and Gov. Jim Pillen, who supported the failed measure. The Nebraska Republican Party issued a statement warning that Riepe would be censured.
“The entities and individuals who aided in the defeat of a Core Republican Value have been duly noted by the leadership of this party. ‘The Watchfulness in the Citizen’ applies now more than ever,” the statement reads.
Riepe noted that abortion was a key issue in his district during the last election, in which his margin of victory was reduced in the face of a Democrat opponent who made abortion a central campaign issue.
“Had my opponent had more time, more money, and more name recognition, she could have won. This made the message clear to me how critical abortion will be in 2024,” he said. “We must embrace the future of reproductive rights.”
In South Carolina, where abortion remains legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy, lawmakers are pursuing their own “heartbeat” abortion ban after six weeks. Their legislation includes some exceptions to a ban.
The state’s Supreme Court overturned a previous six-week abortion ban earlier this year. State lawmakers are seeking to get around this with their new bill.
Two weeks ago, a near-total abortion ban failed in the state Senate after a filibuster that lasted many days involved the chamber’s five female lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The defeat of that bill, also by a single vote, marked the third time a near-total abortion ban has failed in the GOP-controlled state Senate chamber since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, will call a special session next week as the House wasn’t able to vote on the bill before the end of the legislative session.
The South Carolina vote took place with only days left in the session. House Speaker Murrell Smith, a Republican, has said abortion will be the primary matter for the special session, although other items will be on the agenda as well.
I will hold a State House news conference tomorrow morning to announce my plans to call the General Assembly back for a special session and announce the appointment of the next Comptroller General.
— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) May 11, 2023
South Carolina’s last session began shortly after the state Supreme Court struck down the 2021 “heartbeat” abortion ban. Both chambers of the GOP-controlled Legislature have tried since then to advance measures banning abortion at different stages of pregnancy.
Sen. Sandy Senn, a Republican, was the single dissenting vote. She criticized Majority Leader Shane Massey for repeatedly “taking us off a cliff on abortion.”
“The only thing that we can do when you all, you men in the chamber, metaphorically keep slapping women by raising abortion again and again and again, is for us to slap you back with our words,” she said.
Massey, who had sought to advance the House’s stricter abortion ban, warned that the response to Senn’s decision “will be in 2024,” referring to the election year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
