COLOMBIA – After years of trying and failing, Republicans in the South Carolina Senate successfully passed a bill to ban most abortions on Thursday, bringing the state closer than ever to what it is expected to become. a long legal battle over the proposal.
The Senate voted 30-13 in favor of legislation prohibiting abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which usually occurs around six to eight weeks of pregnancy.
The vote means that the bill is now going to the House, where the Republican majority is expected to approve it, as it has done in previous years. Republican Governor Henry McMaster has repeatedly promised to sign it and applauded the Senate’s action on Thursday.
“We are closer than ever to passing the most comprehensive pro-life legislation that our state has ever seen,” said McMaster.
Although the bill is on its way to becoming law, it is not expected to go into effect anytime soon – or ever.
As has happened in almost a dozen conservative states that have passed similar bills, the measure will face immediate legal challenges and will almost certainly be overturned by lower courts.
Anti-abortion activists hope that appeals in these cases will lead the increasingly conservative US Supreme Court to reconsider the historic Roe v decision. 1973 Wade, who concluded that women have a constitutional right to access abortion.
Republicans have spent years trying to pass the bill in the Senate, but have been stopped by Democrats, who have used procedural obstacles to block the initiative. But after Republicans expanded their majority in the 2020 elections, they had more than enough votes to overcome any Democratic objection.
Senator Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, talks about a bill that would ban nearly all abortions in the state on Thursday, January 28, 2021, in Columbia. Senn, the only Republican to vote against the bill, said she believed it was unconstitutional and too extreme. Archive / AP
The only Republican to vote against the bill was state senator Sandy Senn of Charleston, who said she believed it was unconstitutional and too extreme. The only Democrat to vote for him was state senator Kent Williams of Marion, who did not explain his reasoning in advance and was not able to comment after the vote.
Senate majority leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said approval of the bill was one of the Republican Party’s top priorities.
“South Carolina sent 30 Republicans to the state Senate for a reason and this is one of the projects we hear about most,” said Massey. “Passing the heartbeat bill will save thousands of innocent lives in our state and strike an appropriate balance that we feel will stand the test of the court.”
Although Democrats do not have enough votes to block the bill, Senate minority leader Brad Hutto said South Carolina women should not fear because the courts will prevent the move from becoming a reality.
“What was done today was entirely a political theater to appease extremists,” said Hutto, D-Orangeburg. “Republican senators have shown today that they want to deny their constitutional rights, but in the end they will not succeed.”
During three days of debate, lawmakers added some notable exceptions to the bill, including for cases of rape and incest or if the fetus has an abnormality that would be fatal outside the womb. An exception would also be allowed if a doctor determined that the mother’s life would be in danger without an abortion.
State Senator Mia McLeod, D-Columbia, specifically questioned a provision in the bill that requires doctors to provide the local sheriff with the name and contact information of women who have an abortion due to rape or incest.
Revealing that she herself is a survivor of sexual assault, McLeod said the project “mocks God by taking away our rights, our freedoms, our freedoms and our choices”.
“After taking all this, do you have to take away our dignity too?” McLeod said. “It makes you feel good when women have to relive the horror, the indescribable shame and the trauma of everything we live in the hands of a man, so, to add insult to injury, compel us to tell it to another man – this one with a badge? “
Massey said Republicans know the bill will face challenges in court and are unsure how much this legal battle could end up costing taxpayers.
“I think it will be expensive,” said Massey. “But when you compare the expense with the possibility, the likelihood, of saving thousands of lives every year, I think it’s an expense that is worth making.”
According to the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, about 5,100 abortions were performed in South Carolina in 2019. About 45 percent were performed during the first six weeks of pregnancy.
The House could begin moving the bill into the committee’s process next week. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, said this week that he plans to get the bill passed in his chamber “as soon as possible.”
Follow Jamie Lovegrove on Twitter @jslovegrove.