COLUMBIA, S.C. — Heavy pressure from conservative South Carolinians failed to persuade the state Senate to agree to a near-total abortion ban, further dooming the push for more restrictive legislation this year.
The 17-26 vote refusing to revert H. 5399 back to the more restrictive House version came as no surprise after Senate Republican leaders had made it clear for weeks that the votes did not exist in the upper chamber to pass a near-total abortion ban, nor a bill that excluded an exception for fatal fetal anomalies.
The Senate’s 38-6 decision to insist on its version of the abortion bill, a more narrow six-week ban, triggers a negotiation phase with the House. But with less than a month before the sine die agreement — a resolution that outlines what the Legislature can return to deal with after session ends in May — ends Nov. 13, it’s unclear if the two sides will ever meet or, even if they do meet, come to an agreement.
Dave Wilson, head of the conservative Palmetto Family Council, promised senators before the vote Tuesday that if this issue fails, “we will be right back here, again.”
State Sen. Richard Cash, an Anderson Republican who said he was asked to help negotiate with the House over the differing versions of the bill, told reporters he was “very disappointed” with the Senate vote.
“It was the kind of bill that almost all those Republicans who voted against the motion to (to revert the bill back to the House version) actually said they support,” said Cash, who dismissed that there’s any huge difference between the two chambers on when to limit abortions.
“I do think it’s possible” for the Senate to pass a near-total abortion ban, Cash said, while acknowledging it’ll be a “stiff challenge, in that the clock is ticking” for negotiators to reach a compromise.
The Senate negotiators are Cash; Republican Leader Shane Massey, of Edgefield; and state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, a Colleton Democrat. The House negotiators, announced back in September, are House Speaker Pro Tempore Tommy Pope, a York Republican; state Rep. John McCravy, a Greenwood Republican; and state Rep. Spencer Wetmore, a Charleston Democrat.
As of Tuesday, no public meeting dates had been set for the chambers to hash out their differences.
Similar to other states, the South Carolina Legislature took up access to abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which sent the power to further restrict abortion back to the states.
The state already has on the books a six-week abortion ban, known as the “fetal heartbeat” law, with a handful of exceptions for sexual assault, fatal fetal anomaly and the mother’s life. The South Carolina Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the law — now temporarily blocked by the high court — Wednesday morning over whether the law violates the state’s constitutional right to privacy.
Back in August, the House passed a near-total abortion ban with narrow exceptions for the mother’s life and cases of rape and incest. The two latter exceptions were added after a nearly two-hour closed-door House Republican Caucus meeting, highlighting the split among Republicans.
By then, senators had been clear where the votes stood in the chamber.
Massey said there was not enough support in the chamber to pass legislation that would ban abortions at earlier than six weeks, and, after failing to stop a filibuster by Republican state Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort, the Senate amended the bill to ban abortions past six weeks, or when a fetal heartbeat is detected. In its six-week ban, the Senate also agreed to narrow the range of exceptions for an abortion but add one for fatal fetal anomalies.
State Sen. Katrina Shealy, a Lexington Republican who is one of five women in the Senate, told reporters after Tuesday’s vote that eventually there has to be a compromise over abortion. But is it this year?
“We’ve been here quite a bit this fall, but hopefully we can get things worked out,” said the self-described “pro-life” senator who voted Tuesday to insist on the Senate’s version of the bill. “Hopefully we can come back together in January and work something out. I think there eventually will be, you know, there has to be a compromise somewhere because this cannot be the only issue we work on.”
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