S.C. Senate passes bill outlawing most abortions

South Carolina state Rep. John McCravy (left), R-Greenwood, and South Carolina Citizens for Life Executive Director Holly Gatling talk Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Columbia, S.C., after the state Senate approved a bill that would likely ban almost all abortions in the state. McCravy has worked to pass similar bills in the South Carolina House.
South Carolina state Rep. John McCravy (left), R-Greenwood, and South Carolina Citizens for Life Executive Director Holly Gatling talk Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Columbia, S.C., after the state Senate approved a bill that would likely ban almost all abortions in the state. McCravy has worked to pass similar bills in the South Carolina House.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state. The measure gained new momentum after Republicans gained seats in the state Senate last year.

The 30-13 vote is likely the final hurdle for the bill. It has passed the House easily in previous years and Gov. Henry McMaster has repeatedly said he will sign it as soon as he can.

“If this gets upheld by the courts, we will have saved thousands of lives in South Carolina every year. That is a tremendous victory,” said state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a Republican from Edgefield.

The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” requires doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think pregnant women are at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, and the pregnancy is not the result of rape or incest, they can’t perform the abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger.

Similar bills have passed in about a dozen other states but are tied up in courts. Both abortion rights advocates and opponents are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in and rules any of the stricter bans are constitutional, especially now that a third of the U.S. Supreme Court was named by then-President Donald Trump.

In the Bible Belt, South Carolina led the fight for stricter rules on abortions during the 1980s and 1990s. The state’s current law bans abortions after 20 weeks and was once a conservative model.

But in recent years, states from Alabama to Ohio have passed restrictions that ban nearly all abortions because most women don’t know they are pregnant before about six weeks, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

The path for the bill cleared in South Carolina thanks in part to Trump. The divisive presidential race energized Republicans, who won three seats from Democrats in the 2020 elections. Their new 30-16 advantage finally pushed the effort over a procedural hurdle that stopped the bill for years.

“Thank God for the people of this state,” said Republican Sen. Larry Grooms of Bonneau, who has been fighting to end abortion for 24 years and was the primary sponsor.

“The people of South Carolina every year have sent us more and more pro-life senators. In this past election cycle they sent us just enough,” Grooms said.

The vote was almost all along party lines. Sen. Sandy Senn of Charleston was the only Republican against it, and Sen. Kent Williams of Marion was the only Democrat to vote for the ban.

The bill now goes to the House, which would only trigger a new debate in the Senate if it makes changes to the bill. The key issues are the exceptions for rape and incest victims; some conservatives never wanted those in the proposal in the first place, while at least two Republican state senators said they could not support the bill unless it contained those exceptions.

House Speaker Jay Lucas pointed out earlier this week that the House passed an almost identical bill 70-31 last session. And one of the House’s main abortion opponents, Republican Rep. John McCravy of Greenwood, said he thinks fellow House members realize the best way to pass the bill is to leave it alone.

“I certainly am not for exceptions. But the reality of it is they would probably be on as it comes through,” McCravy said.

The Senate labeled the bill No. 1, and senators made it the first major issue they took up in the 2021 session.

Democrats said that was shameful because South Carolina has many more pressing problems, including more than 6,000 people dead from covid-19. It has never expanded Medicaid or raised the minimum wage, and it perpetually has an education system that ranks toward the bottom of the nation, said Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of Walterboro.

“What have we done for the living?” she asked.

Democratic Sen. Mia McLeod told senators that Republicans wouldn’t be the majority forever and would one day be shamed for what she said was taking away women’s right to choose.

“Enjoy this power and control while you have it, fellows,” the Democrat from Columbia said. “This is just politics to you, but it’s personal to millions of us.”

Democrats were resigned to the numbers, and allowed the bill to pass so they could get to other business. However, they warned that the state would waste money on a legal fight that it was likely to lose and that other states are well ahead on.

“It goes into that legal limbo of years and years and years where it waits on a docket somewhere to be heard. Except this case will never be heard because there are 30 other cases pending across the country that raise somewhat or very similar issues,” said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, a Democrat from Orangeburg.

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