Abortion rights supporters see victories in Nebraska, South Carolina
Surprising opposition to abortion restrictions came from Republicans
(Republican Nebraska Sen. Merv Riepe, who voted against the six-week abortion ban)
Abortion rights activists had victories in both South Carolina and Nebraska this week because of the actions of legislators on both sides of the aisle.
Nebraska had been considering a six-week abortion ban while in South Carolina lawmakers had considered a near-total ban on the procedure. People close to the debate said that both laws likely won’t be reconsidered until 2024.
In Nebraska, Republican Sen. Merv Riepe, who used to be a former hospital administrator, chose not to vote for the bill because he felt the six-week ban didn’t give women enough time to figure out whether they were pregnant or not.
Sen. Riepe wanted to amend it to permit abortions up to the 12th week, with exceptions after that for fetal abnormalities, suicidality, and then the continued ones for rape and incest.
Dr. Stephanie Gustin, an OB/GYN in the state and a member of the pro-choice group Doctors For Fertility, said that abortion rights would be safe for the remainder of the year unless they called a special session. She thinks the effort to organize physicians against these bills made a difference in Riepe’s vote.
“I think he really thoughtfully listened,” Gustin said. “And he listened to what we were saying the entire time, unlike his colleagues who were gonna go along their partisan lines regardless. But he truly listened.”
In South Carolina, the bill was defeated after both Republican and Democratic women in the legislature filibustered against it. Ann Warner, chief executive officer of the South Carolina Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network, said the outcry from the public compelled them to oppose the efforts to restrict abortion access.
It was unique in that it was bipartisan, but unsurprisingly most of the resistance came from women.
“The women are the ones who really, really stood up and took the floor and filibustered for hours and stood their ground,” Warner said.
Both victories are good case-in-points of how Republican support for abortion rights can be found in this debate. Women intuitively understand abortion and the reasons people get one far more easily than men do. So appealing to that constituency on the statewide level may make sense. As I’ve pointed out before, feminist leaders have to make a decision whether to use the issue to rally support for liberal candidates, or whether they want to make abortion access a bipartisan issue for it to have a better chance of surviving.