As SC nears abortion ban, first House hearing centers on rape, incest and fetal exceptions

A woman who described her rape as a teenager. A husband whose wife had three miscarriages. An Upstate college student who was born with a fetal anomaly.

These stories and more that were focused mainly on abortion exceptions were shared Thursday in front of legislators during the first round of testimony before a special S.C. House committee charged with deciding the future of abortion access in South Carolina.

The hearing was one of several to come in the General Assembly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade that brought more than 200 anti-abortion and abortion rights advocates to the State House grounds Thursday.

The special committee, chaired by state Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, will meet at least one more time before finalizing legislation — H. 5399 — that will eventually be debated by the full House.

Outside the packed hearing room, supporters on either side of the debate protested outside the doors, where a heavy security presence stood watch. A line to get into the House building stretched around the grounds. One speaker told lawmakers that he had been waiting in line to speak since 6:30 a.m. Other speakers said the same.

“I appeal to you that women of South Carolina do not need an abortion. I am a woman and I simply needed a chance to live,” one Greenville resident, who was born premature, said.

Lawmakers met Thursday almost two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a nearly 50-year precedent that established a person’s constitutional right to an abortion, sending power to further restrict abortion rights back to state legislatures.

The General Assembly is expected to restrict access to abortions further this year.

South Carolina’s current abortion law bans abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, when most women are not aware they’re pregnant, critics argue. The law includes exceptions: rape, incest, fetal anomaly and when the mother’s life is at risk.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has said repeatedly he will sign an all-out abortion ban if sent to his desk, even if it removes exceptions.

McMaster’s Democratic challenger in November, Joe Cunningham, who has made abortion a primary focus of his campaign, said previously if elected he would veto any abortion bill and asked lawmakers to vote on legislation after the elections, not before.

McMaster told reporters last month that lawmakers should not wait on the election. McCravy called Cunningham’s request “political grandstanding.”

Cunningham spoke at Thursday’s hearing, calling anti-abortion legislation “draconian.”

“You’re stripping that God-given right to life away from women,” Cunningham said. “You’re taking away their personal liberty by removing their right to privacy and the right to decide what happens to their very own bodies.”

Testimony focuses on abortion exceptions

The panel took testimony from dozens of people on both sides of the issue.

They included Courtney Turner Milbank, an attorney from Bopp Law Firm, who, McCravy said, was invited to deliver testimony.

Milbank recommended that lawmakers bar all abortions except to save the life of the mother, and asked legislators to block telehealth for abortion services. She also suggested that the committee consider adding anti-racketeering or anti-corruption-style laws to combat the “abortion enterprise.”

Another person, Aaron Cameron Popkin, of Spartanburg, told lawmakers he had been married to his high school sweetheart for 30 years, and was the father to three children he called “survivors.”

He told lawmakers that his wife had three miscarriages before giving birth to his three children, describing the trees planted in his backyard to remember them.

Doctors are not “abortionists,” Popkin said. He told the panel those doctors saved his wife.

“That procedure is not a flippant decision,” he said. “It’s a life-saving procedure.”

More testimony came from a Vietnam war veteran fearful of ableism in the decision to get an abortion, a college student who had a fetal anomaly before being born, a pastor who was born with a spinal defect and a former lawmaker.

Robert Ridgeway, a former Democratic House member from Clarendon County and a physician, said he took issue with the implementation of the exceptions to rape and incest. He said that a fetal anomaly is a necessary exception, and “incompatibility with life does not mean disability.”

Another woman, Hailey Snyder, told lawmakers she was once “fiercely anti-abortion.” In time, she said she is now “100% pro-choice,” describing being molested as a 12-year-old girl and doing “the supposed right thing” by reporting the crime.

“I lost half my family, and was then told there just wasn’t enough evidence,” Snyder told the panel. “He remained living two doors down from me for years. I can confidently say that South Carolina failed me as a victim and survivor, and has failed thousands more.”

SC lawmakers prepare to tackle stricter abortion bills

Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, as protesters gathered outside, abortion rights advocates and lawmakers called on the Legislature to to keep access to abortions legal, arguing women’s lives are at stake.

Jenny Black, president of Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, told reporters that, on average, more than a dozen South Carolinians have been referred to North Carolina to get an abortion in the days following the implementation of South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban.

She added that in North Carolina, a third of patients seeking an abortion come from a different state, like Tennessee and South Carolina.

“Every day, Planned Parenthood health centers are taking calls from crying people, calculating the cost of what it means to drive across multiple state borders, to pay for childcare, to find a place to stay just to get the healthcare that for 50 years, was our right,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Preparations are currently underway also in the state Senate for public hearings to consider more restrictive abortion legislation.

Senate Medical Affairs Chairman Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, told The State the Senate could take public testimony in mid-August as the House debates its own anti-abortion bill. The Senate will likely consider the House abortion bill, which is estimated to be debated by late August or early September.