Female SC senators blast abortion ban bill’s lack of exceptions in male-dominated chamber

Four of five South Carolina female senators on Wednesday blasted legislation that would ban nearly all abortions in the state and only offer limited exceptions that include if the pregnancy compromises the mother’s life and health.

One, a Republican from Charleston, called for the issue to be put on the ballot for a public vote — but, she said to her colleagues, “Y’all are scared.”

“I think it’s going to be interesting in the November elections to see what’s going to happen, because this issue is huge,” Sen. Sandy Senn said. “Fifty-one percent of the population now are women. You don’t think that we’re going to vote on this? You don’t think that women will vote single-issue on something like this? Because they will.”

The Senate — made up of 30 Republicans and 16 Democrats — started its debate Wednesday on H. 5399 after the bill was advanced the day before by the Republican-majority Senate Medical Affairs Committee. The debate will stretch into Thursday, and senators will return to the chamber at 10 a.m., after they agreed on a procedural move to push the final phase of the debate to the next day in hopes of avoiding session next week.

More bluntly, Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto told reporters that Thursday will likely be the decision day.

“I am very hopeful, and many are, that there will not be enough votes to give it a third (final) reading, therefore the bill would die and the ‘fetal heartbeat’ bill would still be the law of South Carolina,” the Orangeburg Democrat said, explaining the decision vote could come down in part to whether there are enough senators in the room, or 26 he said, to sit a fellow senator down to end a filibuster.

“Rather than there being an affirmative up or down on third (vote), it’s more likely there’s going to be a vote to decide whether to end the debate,” Hutto added. “If the debate is ended, then it’ll go to third and probably pass. If the debate’s not ended, then it’s sort of futile to stay any longer.”

As it reads currently, the bill seeks to ban nearly all abortions in the state without exceptions if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

The proposal makes an exception if the pregnancy complicates the mother’s life and health. And later Wednesday, the Senate voted by voice to adopt an amendment adding an exception for fatal fetal anomaly, or if a doctor determines that the fetus is unlikely to survive outside the mother’s womb — an exception left out in the original House bill.

In a back-and-forth with Sen. Billy Garrett over the exception, Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, noted Garrett backed adding the exception in the six-week ban.

“That was before Roe vs. Wade was in the background,” Garrett, R-McCormick, responded, adding that the child’s life has as much of a right as the mother.

The current legislation also now would require state health plans to cover prescribed contraceptives for dependents and require private health insurance in South Carolina to cover contraceptives.

The proposal does not require certain state agencies to provide access to contraceptives to anyone over age 13, nor does it expand sex health and reproductive health care education in schools after both proposals failed to pass.

“I appreciate the senator’s (Davis) effort in trying to expand access to contraceptives, ... but I got some real heartburn on this one,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, a father to a young daughter who supported Davis’ earlier amendment on contraceptives but said he could not support agencies doing it.

Senate puts fatal fetal anomaly exception in bill

The lack of certain exceptions in the bill’s original form “frankly shocked” Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw, she said on the floor early Wednesday.

Her and the other female senators’ comments followed those of anti-abortion Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, who opened session prior to the debate by quoting scripture. State Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, who has opposed legislation restricting abortion access, had excused leave Wednesday.

“Doesn’t seem this bill regards the mother at all,” said Gustafson, who said she couldn’t vote for the bill without an exception for fatal fetal anomalies. “I don’t understand how S. 1 (the six-week abortion ban) ... it was so widely supported, why two years ago it was OK to consider a fatal fetal anomaly of a baby but today it’s totally no, can’t do that.”

Davis, who opposes the bill as written, proposed again Wednesday an amendment to add exceptions for rape and incest up until around 20 weeks of pregnancy — higher than the 12-week limit added by the House — but eliminate any requirement that the crime leading to an abortion be reported to law enforcement.

Asked whether he’d consider adding the reporting requirement back in, Davis said, “No.” Davis later said he would be open to adding the requirement if it could be part of passing what he considers a better bill.

In the end, Davis’ amendment was rejected by a 23-6 vote, with all three Republican female senators voting with Davis in support of his proposal. All Democrats did not vote.

A similar proposal, this time proposed by Republican. Josh Kimbrell of Spartanburg to allow rape and incest exceptions but only up to six weeks also failed after this time 12 Democrats joined Republicans to reject the amendment.

“We’re against this whole bill, and the idea we’re going to let them achieve a compromise hurts our position of trying to kill the bill,” Hutto told reporters. “And that’s no secret to them.”

South Carolina’s current abortion ban law limits the procedure up to 20 weeks of pregnancy after the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked the six-week “fetal heartbeat” law that originally took effect shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June.

After the high court’s injunction, many legislators, including some Republicans, have asked colleagues to let the six-week ban run its course instead of passing new legislation that would aim to completely ban the procedure.

“This soul-sucking effort to control a woman’s pregnancy, I’m sorry gentlemen, but I’m not going to participate any longer in this insulting and degrading debate,” Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton, said earlier Wednesday. “This is not your place.”

State Sen. Katrina Shealy, a Lexington Republican who has championed legislation aimed at supporting women and children and is currently the longest-serving woman in the chamber, on Wednesday criticized the nearly all-male chamber of legislators for making decisions for women.

“To say it’s tough to be a woman in politics is an understatement,” Shealy said. “To say it’s really tough to be a woman in politics in South Carolina is hardly a statement at all. You can tell by looking around this room. You can tell by looking at the portraits on the wall of this room and in the House chamber and in the halls of the State House. You can tell how tough it is by some of the comments made by some of the people in the lobby. Things like, ‘Women aren’t fit to serve,’ that ‘God doesn’t want us here.’”

“Well, God’s pretty smart. If God didn’t want us here, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be here.”