South Carolina Senate approves bill banning most abortions

Photographer: Jeffrey Collins / AP Photo

Columbia, SC (AP) – The South Carolina Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would make almost all abortions in the state illegal, overcoming years of obstacles thanks to Republicans who won new seats in last year’s elections.

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

“If this is confirmed by the courts, we will have saved thousands of lives in South Carolina every year. This is a tremendous victory, ”said Senate majority leader Shane Massey, an Republican from Edgefield.

The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Abortion Protection Act” requires 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.

Similar projects have been approved in about a dozen other states, but are stuck in the courts. Both abortion advocates and opponents are waiting to see whether the United States Supreme Court weighs in and determines that the strictest bans are constitutional, especially since former President Donald Trump was able to appoint three judges.

In the Bible Belt, South Carolina led the fight for stricter abortion rules during the 1980s and 1990s. Current state law prohibits abortion after 20 weeks and was once a conservative model.

But in recent years, states from Alabama to Ohio have passed restrictions that prohibit almost all abortions, because most women do not know they are pregnant before about six weeks, when the fetal heartbeat can be detected.

The path to the bill was opened in South Carolina in part thanks to Trump. The divisive presidential race energized Republicans, who won three Democratic seats in the 2020 elections, and their new 30-16 lead finally pushed the effort over a procedural hurdle that halted the project for years.

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

“The people of South Carolina each year send us more and more pro-life senators. In the last election cycle, they sent us just enough, ”said Grooms.

Voting took place on almost all party lines. Senator Sandy Senn of Charleston was the only Republican against, and Senator Kent Williams of Marion was the only Democrat to vote for the ban.

The bill now goes to the House, which if changes are made – such as removing exceptions for rape and incest victims that some conservatives did not want in the proposal in the first place – will trigger another fight in the Senate. At least two Republican senators said they could not support the project without these exceptions.

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

“I certainly am no exception. But the reality is that they would probably be on the air as soon as it arose, “said McCravy.

The Senate classified the bill as number 1 and made it the first major issue it addressed at the 2021 session.

Democrats said this was shameful because South Carolina has many more pressing problems, including more than 6,000 killed because of COVID-19. He never expanded Medicaid, raised the minimum wage, and perpetually has an education system that sits at the bottom of the nation, said Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews of Walterboro.

“What we did for a living,” she said.

Democratic Senator Mia McLeod told senators that Republicans would not be the majority forever and would one day be ashamed of taking away women’s rights to choice, freedom and freedom.

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

Democrats were resigned to the numbers and decided not to hinder the Senate for weeks so they could do other business. They said the state would waste money on a legal fight it was likely to lose and that other states are well ahead.

“He goes to that legal limbo of years and years and years where he waits on an agenda somewhere to be heard. Except that this case will never be heard because there are 30 other pending cases across the country that raise similar or very similar issues, ”said Senate minority leader Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat.

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.