Thursday in the local legislatures of Nebraska and South Carolina, two US states, they were rejected two laws that would have greatly limited the possibility of legally resorting to voluntary termination of pregnancy.
In both states, parliament is controlled by the Republicans: a party that for years has had increasingly conservative positions on abortion rights, and which after a recent Supreme Court ruling that eliminated it nationwide is trying to dismantle local laws which guarantee it.
However, there are exceptions to this trend: in South Carolina a law that would have eliminated or almost eliminated the possibility of abortion it was rejected by the Senate also thanks to the opposition of six Republicans, including five women. The new law would also have significant consequences for neighboring states: South Carolina is one of the few Republican-governed Southern states where voluntary abortion is possible, even within the first 22 weeks.
Even in Nebraska a similar bill, which would have banned it after the sixth week of pregnancy, was rejected thanks to the opposition of a part of the Republicans. To continue its legislative process, the bill needed 33 votes out of the 50 in the Senate: it obtained 32 because one of the Republican senators, Merv Riepe, he abstained contrary to the indications of the party and of the governor Jim Pillen, also a Republican.