SC GOP infighting over exceptions dominates debate on ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion bill
Tensions ran strong between South Carolina Republicans as they debated a bill that that would stop all abortions once a “fetal heartbeat” can be detected, which is around six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
The debate among the predominantly-male chamber came Tuesday, just two weeks after South Carolina lawmakers returned to Columbia for a new session.
The bill, S.1, would require doctors to perform an ultrasound to detect a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion. If a doctor were to find one and still go through with the procedure, they could face a felony charge and could, therefore, lose their licenses to practice medicine.
During the last few years, abortions performed after six weeks in South Carolina made up about 55% of all abortions performed in the state, according to statistics from the Department of Health and Environmental Control. Of the 5,101 abortions performed in the state in 2019, 2,323 were performed at six weeks or gestation or less.
Most of Tuesday’s debate centered around what exceptions to the virtual ban should be included in the bill. Under the bill’s original language, the only exception to the ban would be if the life of the mother was threatened.
While attempts to add in exceptions for rape and incest failed in the Senate Medical Affairs Committee, a group of Republican senators pushed Tuesday for amendments that would add those in along with an exception for fatal fetal anomalies. Two of those senators, Sens. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, and Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, threatened to withdraw their support of exceptions for rape and incest weren’t added.
“I will tell you there will never ever be a bill that doesn’t include the exceptions for rape and incest that will ever get my vote,” Senn said on the Senate floor.
Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, called the debate over whether to add exceptions into the bill “the most divisive issue on this bill other than the bill itself, particularly among the Republican caucus.”
“You introduced an amendment authorizing an innocent life to be taken,” Cash said as senators considered an amendment by Senn.
“This is a Republican dominated state, a Republican dominated legislature yet people are wringing their hands wondering how can we get exceptions into this bill so we can pass it,” Cash later shouted on the floor.
Cash cited the Bible and talked about Christian values during his push against the bill. Senn criticized him, pointing out there should be a separation of church and state.
“I just want to know whether you realize we are not in a church,” Senn said.
“I know that I’m not required to check my beliefs at the door,” Cash retorted. “Neither is anyone in here.”
Davis criticized Cash for arguing that the right to life was the most important right someone can have. Davis said he didn’t believe life would be worth living if it was “controlled by the state.”
“You can’t simply take a blanket statement and say this one is superior and it trumps the other,” Davis said.
Davis argued that lawmakers have to balance the right of a woman who was raped with the right of the fetus. He used the example of an 11-year-old who was raped by a family member.
“You’re telling her to suck it up,” Davis said. “I cannot go along with that.”
Whether to include exemptions for rape and incest has been a contentious question through the years as South Carolina Republicans have tried to limit the availability of abortions.
In the first hearing on the bill during the first week of session, Davis threatened to stall the bill if his amendments, including an exception for cases in which the fetus was conceived due to rape or incest, weren’t added to the bill. His colleagues talked him into dropping his amendment and reintroducing it during a meeting of the full Medical Affairs Committee, where it still failed to make it into the bill.
In committee, only two Republicans voted against the bill: Davis and Senn.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, an amendment proposed by Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, helped the body move past the infighting. The amendment would allow exceptions for rape and incest, but would require doctors who perform abortions under those conditions to report to the police that their patient said they were a victim of the crimes.
Massey called his reporting requirement “an extension” of a current state law that requires doctors to report when a child has been raped or was involved in incest.
Massey’s amendment did not include an exception for fatal fetal anomalies, but after the Senate adjourned for the afternoon, he said he and other Republicans would work to add that exception into the fetal heartbeat bill.
Massey’s amendment was adopted.
Opponents rallied in support of choice
As senators gathered inside, opponents of the bill protested on the State House steps.
Anchored by a chorus of car horns, doctors asked South Carolinians to call their senator to vote “No” on S. 1.
“This is not their doctor’s office,” said Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic in South Carolina, speaking of the 2.5 million people who use Planned Parenthood services nationally, including thousands who use South Carolina’s two Planned Parenthood clinics. “This is the State House. Our patients don’t get involved in politics. They simply want health care.”
Ringer called the legislation unconstitutional, “abhorrent” and “abhorrent to most men.”
“This is not just a women’s issue. It’s a family issue. It’s a statewide issue,” she said.
Ann Warner, head of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network, chastised Senate Republicans for bringing this issue to the forefront during a pandemic.
“It’s hard to believe that in a middle of a raging pandemic, when COVID infections and death rates continue to soar and we can’t get our vaccination plan handled in South Carolina, that our state lawmakers’ top legislative priority is actually taking health care away from people in this state,” Warner said.
“Respect science. Respect doctors. Respect our Constitution, and above all, respect the capacity of the people of this state to make their own decisions about pregnancy and parenting,” she added.
In addition to protesters, 325 South Carolina doctors signed a letter sent to lawmakers calling for opposition to the bill.
“These policies are harmful to women’s health, and their futures. Women cannot achieve their full potential without having complete bodily autonomy,” the letter read. “Medically unjustified restrictions on reproductive health care replace medical facts with political rhetoric and personal ideology, and ties the hands of health-care providers from being able to provide the standard of care in healthcare decisions with their patients.”
Critics of the bill also argued that it would be unconstitutional. All states that have passed similar bills have faced injunctions as the courts battle over whether the restrictive abortion bans are constitutional. Several Republicans hope that the cases filed against “fetal heartbeat” could make it to the Supreme Court, which became more conservative as former President Donald Trump named judges to the bench.
If the bill were to become law in South Carolina, doctors would have to follow it until a court injunction was issued, said Molly Rivera, communications director for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
“We of course have to obey the law, and if the Senate passes it, House passes it, the governor signs it, that’s the law. It would be a cruel and unjust law, but we would have to follow it without the courts intervening.”
Rivera reiterated that Planned Parenthood will do everything it can to keep its doors open and meet their patients’ needs. The law would inevitably meet a court challenge, where it could face a similar fate to Georgia’s, where a federal judge there rejected the state’s ban. The U.S. Supreme Court has still not decided whether to take up Mississippi’s abortion case that would directly challenge Roe v. Wade.
‘Not ever going to save a baby’
Tuesday, Senn introduced an amendment to extend the ban from when a heartbeat is detectable at about six weeks to the end of the first trimester, saying that may mean the bill faces fewer legal challenges.
“If we do something such as heartbeat, which I believe does not give enough turn around time ... then I believe what we’re going to have is a stay by the federal court, a long and lengthy federal court proceeding,” Senn said. “This is not ever going to save a baby and its going to be found unconstitutional.”
Senn said 18 other states have adopted that standard and have not faced court challenges to the law. Her amendment could save South Carolina taxpayers from having to foot the bill on an expensive court case, she said.
The amendment was voted down.
South Carolina Republicans are in a much stronger position to pass a “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban this session. Democrats lost crucial seats during the November election, and the House swiftly passed a similar bill that was proposed last year. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has said he would sign a bill as soon as it landed on his desk.
After the Senate let out for the afternoon, Massey said he felt “pretty good about the position that I’m in.”
In the past, Democrats have used amendments to poison and defeat similar abortion bills. Last year, they also held enough members to stop Republicans from sitting down a filibuster. But this year, senators agreed to curb the powers of single lawmakers aiming to derail legislation.
Tuesday, Democratic leader Brad Hutto goaded Republicans to change the bill to a full abortion ban. He introduced an amendment that would do so.
“You say that you are absolutely opposed to (abortion),” Hutto said. “My point is this: if that’s what you really believe, then vote for this.”
The Senate overwhelmingly voted to table the amendment, effectively killing it.
Hutto introduced other amendments — including one that would change the date the bill would be effective from directly after the governor signs it into law to six months after — were voted down or set aside for later debate.
The Senate is set to return for session at 1 p.m. Wednesday to consider more amendments to the bill.
Maayan Schechter contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 4:43 PM.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that roughly 2.5 million people use Planned Parenthood’s clinics nationally.
