South Carolina House passes GOP bill to ban abortion from conception
Abigail Adcox
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The South Carolina House passed a Republican bill that would place a near-total ban on abortions for the second time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
The state House approved the legislation in an 83-31 vote on Wednesday, largely along GOP party lines, that would prohibit abortions from conception with exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly, and the mother’s life. It comes a week after the state Senate passed a bill that would ban abortions after cardiac activity is detected around six weeks of pregnancy, as Republican lawmakers disagree over what restrictions should be placed on abortion in the state.
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“The House has taken another giant step in protecting human life,” House Speaker Murrell Smith (R) said after the vote, according to the Post and Courier.
The two chambers will need to reconcile what type of legislation they want to move forward with enacting, though Republican lawmakers in both chambers have indicated they aren’t budging. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has said that the House’s bill lacks enough support in the Senate, instead advancing the less restrictive law. Meanwhile, House Republican leaders have argued they don’t have the votes to pass the heartbeat bill either, leaving both chambers at a standstill.
State Republican lawmakers were at a similar stalemate last year when they failed to come to an agreement on what proposal to rally behind in the fall.
The debate over which abortion policy to advance follows the state Supreme Court tossing out a state law last month that banned abortion after cardiac activity is detected.
The state’s high court ruled that the law violates the state constitution’s right to privacy, as it does not provide a woman “sufficient” time to determine she is pregnant. Justice Kaye Hearn, who authored the majority opinion, wrote that limitations on the procedure “must afford a woman sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy.”
Hearn has since retired from the court due to age constrictions and was replaced by a male justice, making the state Supreme Court the only one in the country without a woman on the bench.
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The decision has allowed abortions to remain legal in the state until 20 weeks of pregnancy. Republican lawmakers in the House have suggested that their latest bill is revised in a way that would stand up to any legal challenges.
South Carolina is one of several state legislatures weighing new restrictions on abortion access. Nebraska lawmakers have been mulling over a similar bill that would ban abortions once cardiac activity can be detected.