Legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will become law in North Carolina after the state-controlled General Assembly successfully overturned the Democratic governors’ veto late Tuesday.

The House completed the second and final portion of the override vote Tuesday night after a similar three-fifths majority voted in favor of the override earlier Tuesday in the Senate. The result represents a major victory for Republican legislative leaders who needed every GOP member on board to pass the law over Gov. Opposition from Roy Cooper.

Cooper vetoed the measure over the weekend after touring the state last week trying to persuade at least one Republican to uphold his anticipated veto.

Republicans have proposed the measure as a midway change to state law, which currently bans nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

The vote came as U.S. abortion rights faced another tectonic shift that saw lawmakers consider heavily restricting abortion in North Carolina and South Carolina, two of the few remaining Southern states with relatively easy access.

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Nebraska joined the two states on Tuesday in the debate over abortion restrictions that may have come after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year’s groundbreaking Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973, which established a nationwide right to abortion, struck down.

Under another bill to be put to a vote in the South Carolina House on Tuesday, access to abortion would be almost completely banned after about six weeks of pregnancy before women often know they are pregnant. The South Carolina state senate previously rejected a proposal to nearly ban abortion.

Abortion has been banned or severely restricted in much of the South and is now banned during pregnancy in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. In Georgia it is only allowed in the first six weeks.

The Carolinas, Florida and Virginia are now the region’s top destinations for those seeking legal abortions. Florida has a ban that takes effect after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Under a recent law, that would be limited to six weeks pending a court ruling. Farther west, women often travel to Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico or Colorado.

Nationally, 14 states have bans on abortion during pregnancy.

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If both the North and South Carolina bans become law, coupled with the recent Florida ban, it would simply be disastrous for abortion access in the South, said Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia , Tuesday.

During the North Carolina Senate debate, Republicans said Cooper ignored $160 million within the measure that would boost funding to increase contraceptive services, reduce infant and maternal mortality, and provide paid maternity leave for state employees and teachers.

North Carolinians watching this debate testify to exaggerated and extremist objections from some Democrats, said Republican Senator Vickie Sawyer of Iredell County. Their anger is that this bill is mainstream and a logical approach to a very difficult subject.

Democrats focused on details of the abortion rules, which they say would create barriers between women and their doctors, putting pregnant women at risk.

And the 12-week hiatus means young women may only have a few weeks to decide whether an abortion is the right decision, leaving them to continue with unwanted pregnancies, said Democratic Senator Natasha Marcus of Mecklenburg County.

This bill is a slap in the face. It’s a muzzle for our mouths and a straitjacket for our body, Marcus said. After the vote in the Senate, loud chants of shame! could be heard outside the room doors.

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Anti-abortion protesters who arrived hours before the vote filled the North Carolina Senate gallery, with about 150 supporters of the proposed ban holding identical Vote Pro-Life signs.

So many Republicans have just fallen under the pressure of all the groups that are just filled with hate and pushing things that go against God, said Sharon Dooley, 63, of Garner, N.C.

In South Carolina, the deadlock dates back to a special session last fall when House lawmakers demanding a near-total ban failed to meet to negotiate with their Senate counterparts who pushed for a ban some six weeks.

The stalemate continued even after the state Supreme Court in January struck down an earlier law that banned abortion once heart activity was detected.

That decision left abortion legal up to 22 weeks gestation. A surge in abortions since then has ranked Republicans.

The House weighed a Senate bill similar to the one they denied last year. The measure would ban abortion when an ultrasound detects heart activity, about six weeks.

A late night is expected even after Republicans invoked rules to limit debate. House Speaker Murrell Smith has said the chamber will not adjourn until the measure is approved. Democrats delayed the process Tuesday by speaking all three allotted minutes on each of their hundreds of amendments and forcing other procedural votes.

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Lawmakers in Nebraska debated a bill that would ban abortion at 12 weeks gestation. The proposal comes after lawmakers last month rejected a bill that would ban abortion after heart activity is detected.

This latest proposal is being tackled on a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Conservatives in Nebraska’s unicameral, nominally impartial legislature need 33 votes out of 49 for these proposals to pass.

In Montana, Republican Gov. Greg Gianfortes’ office announced on Tuesday that he had signed a law making performing the most commonly used abortion method after 15 weeks of pregnancy a felony. Planned Parenthood of Montana asked a judge to temporarily block the ban on dilatation and evacuation abortions.

A separate challenge to abortion access will be considered Wednesday, when a federal appeals court hears arguments over whether the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the widely used abortion drug mifepristone should be overturned. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will last month review a ruling by a Texas federal judge that suspended approval of mifepristone, a decision that overturned two decades of scientific approval for the drug. That ruling has been suspended while the appeal is pending.

The three judges who will hear the case each have a history of supporting restrictions on abortion. A ruling is not expected immediately.

Lavoie reported from Richmond, Va. Associated Press writers James Pollard and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, SC, Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, NJ, Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Mont., and Sarah Rankin in Richmond contributed to this report. Schoenbaum and Pollard are associates of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.