COLUMBIA, S.C. — Unable to get enough votes to support a near-total abortion ban, the South Carolina Senate on Thursday passed legislation that would build on the state’s six-week law but limit the procedure for sexual assault victims up to 12 weeks.
“This is not where I wanted to be. I was hoping that we would do something pretty aggressive in response to Dobbs,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, citing the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned the longstanding Roe v. Wade decision.
But, Massey added, there weren’t enough votes to ban abortions earlier than six weeks.
Massey said the amended House bill, H. 5399, would make the so-called “fetal heartbeat” law stronger. The law bans abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, or about six weeks. Critics argue that most women don’t know they’re pregnant at the six-week mark.
Current law in South Carolina limits abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy after the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked the six-week ban passed in 2021.
The bill makes an exception for the mother’s life and health and those who have become pregnant after being raped or from incest.
But it narrows the window for the procedure should the pregnancy be the result of a crime to first trimester, or 12 weeks, not 20 weeks as the six-week law allows. It would require that the doctor performing the abortion tell the pregnant woman that they will notify the county sheriff where the abortion was done no later than 24 hours after the procedure, with the woman’s name and contact information.
And it would require the doctor to preserve a DNA sample from the fetus to give to the county sheriff, who must turn it into evidence within 90 days of being notified.
In addition, the bill also would make an exception for fatal fetal anomaly, or if the fetus is unable to survive outside the mother’s womb. But it would require that the anomaly be confirmed by two doctors who specialize in obstetrics or an area in which an anomaly is diagnosed.
Though the legislation passed 27-16, the two-day, hours-long debate highlighted the same problem plaguing House Republicans: Members of the political party that control the Legislature and the governor’s office are split on how restrictive an abortion ban should be.
“For me, in analyzing this issue, ... there ought to be deference given and greater weight given to the woman at the beginning of the pregnancy,” said Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who had threatened to filibuster the bill and voted against its entirety Thursday night. “And as you move along ... (there) comes a time when a woman’s right to autonomy over her body must yield to the right of that unborn child to be born.”
Three of five women senators in the chamber voted against the bill.
One, Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw, voted to pass the bill.
The fifth, Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, had excused leave.
“I think we ladies have suffered a setback ... in the hands of a lot of white males in here,” said Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston. “But we’re going to live to fight another day. In reality, (the) white males feel like they’ve lost too, because what did they get?
“We’ve been here for two days and two nights, and we’re back basically to the same bill that was passed a year ago, and that the (state) Supreme Court has already taken off the table, at least temporarily. But because the Supreme Court has already indicated that they’re going to look at it, I do believe we’re going to live to fight another day.”
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