COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – A proposal that would likely ban nearly all abortions in South Carolina on Tuesday approached final approval in a committee vote split between party lines.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 15-8 to pass the “Fetal Heartbeat and Abortion Protection Act in South Carolina” The bill has already passed the Senate and the governor promises he will sign it, although the law it must be the subject of lengthy court battles before it comes into force.
The proposal would require doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect fetal heartbeats if they think pregnant women are at least eight weeks old. If they find a heartbeat and the pregnancy is not the result of rape or incest, they cannot have an abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger.
The fetal heartbeat can be detected six weeks after conception and before many women know they are pregnant.
About a dozen other states have passed similar bills, although they are linked to legal challenges. The project’s main sponsor, Congressman John McCravy, R-Greenwood, said during his explanation of the bill that he expects the United States Supreme Court to overturn his 1973 decision on abortion rights because of recent conservative judges added by the former President Donald Trump.
“The Constitution in our country has become everything that nine judges say it means,” said McCravy.
Numerous public hearings have been held on the bill in recent years, but Republican lawmakers are no longer planning public statements about it.
Republicans were silent after explaining the bill, allowing several Democrats to speak.
“This is an issue that we should not legislate,” said Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia. “It is a decision that needs to be made between the woman, her family and her doctor.”
Democrats tried unsuccessfully to change the bill. Deputy John King, D-Rock Hill, proposed amendments that the state would “take full financial responsibility” for a child if the mother was denied abortion, calling him “truly pro-life”.
Another failed amendment said that if the proposal became law, it would only apply if the US Supreme Court maintained similar laws in other states. Both failed in party polls.
A third amendment would have allowed pregnant women and the parents of their babies to openly carry weapons to protect their unborn children. This did not pass either.
Democrats argued that Republicans don’t care enough about children after they were born. They also questioned the constitutionality of the bill and components of the proposal, such as how the state would deal with the requirement for doctors to show ultrasound to women with visual impairments.
“According to this bill, the doctor must ask the woman if she wants to hear the heartbeat. So I think we will have to train our doctors in sign language, ”said Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg.
Democrats said the bill would require an invasive ultrasound to be able to hear a potential heartbeat in early pregnancy, rather than one outside the woman’s belly. To illustrate the point, Bamberg raised an internally used wand while speaking, but Republicans questioned that argument.
“I can’t find that anywhere in the bill,” said Representative Weston Newton, R-Bluffton. “I want to make sure that we are actually considering what was offered as an opinion.”
Tuesday’s discussion at the committee meeting is probably a preview of the debate that will take place in the House later this month.
Some Democratic representatives plan amendments to try to delay approval as much as possible. Republicans are likely to try to avoid any changes to the bill that could return it to the Senate, where it stumbled years before 2021.
The House plenary passed a similar bill 70-31 in 2019.
Republicans were finally able to approve the proposal in the South Carolina Senate after removing three Democrats’ seats in the 2020 elections.
Democratic Rep. Cezar McKnight told lawmakers that South Carolina has much more pressing issues, including improving education, finding a way to make life better for poor children and increasing the Department of Social Services budget to help families.
“We will do everything we can when they are in the womb, but after that it is the survival of the fittest,” said the Democrat from Kingstree.
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.