State Republican legislators in South Carolina and Nebraska balked at oppressive anti-abortion measures, legislation that would effectively ban abortion in those states, a possible sign that mainstream conservatives feel religious zealots running GOP policy may have overstepped the desires of the American people.  Patients in both states can continue to access abortion services up to the 22nd week of pregnancy.

According to the Washington Post, five female state senators took to the floor in South Carolina to decry the near-total abortion ban that was being considered.  One of them, Sandy Senn, compared the legislation to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” saying laws about women’s reproductive health “have always been, each and every one of them, about control — plain and simple. And in the Senate, the males have all the control.”  While the GOP controls two-thirds of the seats in the senate, the bill’s supporters could not break the filibuster thanks to the Republican women crossing the aisle.

In Nebraska, an 80-year-old white man is all that’s standing between safe and legal abortion, and the six-week abortion ban proposed by Republicans in the state.  Republican state senator Merv Riepe told a local outlet that he needed time to consider his position:  “At the end of the day, I need to look back and be able to say to myself, ‘Did you do the best?’  No group came to me, asking me to do this. This is of my own beliefs, my own commitments.”