OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 2:23 PM – Friday, April 28, 2023
Bills aimed at restricting abortion in South Carolina and Nebraska have both failed in their state legislatures on Thursday.
In South Carolina, six Republicans helped to block a motion that ended the debate on a near-total abortion ban bill, only to be followed by a similar situation in Nebraska, where a six-week ban on abortion was being debated.
The 22-21 vote on Thursday has marked the third time that a near-total abortion ban has failed in the Republican-led chamber of South Carolina since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022.
Before the bill failed, Governor Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) urged lawmakers in the state to pass a bill that the “vast majority of our state” accepts, adding that most people in the state supported a 2021 law banning abortion as soon as cardiac activity is detected.
Senator Penry Gustafson (R-S.C.) told CNN that she is in favor of the bill, however she voted against the bill because she did not believe that it would pass the state’s Supreme Court. She further expressed concerns about the nationwide 15-week ban that has been promoted by some Congressional Republicans.
“I’ve talked with some of my colleagues, especially my female colleagues, and we think it’s a bad idea. If you are going to send the decision-making to the states, we need to do that. We need to legislate on behalf of our states,” she said.
Meanwhile, a vote in Nebraska aimed to end the debate in order to advance the bill failed, the motion needed 33 votes, but the vote turned out as 32-15, even with Governor Jim Pillen (R-Neb.) publicly supporting it. This makes the likelihood of the bill advancing in 2023 very unlikely.
Be the first to comment