South Carolina Senate fails to go near-total abortion ban after GOP lawmaker filibuster

CNN
 — 

The South Carolina Republican-led Senate was unable to pass a bill Thursday that sought to ban practically all abortions at each stage of being pregnant with out exceptions for rape and incest, as a substitute selecting to amend the state’s already restrictive abortion legislation, after a handful of GOP senators joined with Democrats to dam the invoice.

The failure of the near-total abortion ban spoke to the divide amongst South Carolina Republicans – and the chasm amongst Republicans basically – over whether or not abortion restrictions ought to embody exceptions for pregnancies that had been the results of a rape or incest.

South Carolina House invoice 5399, which handed the state House final month, had sufficient assist from Senate Republicans to ban practically all abortions within the state, however a filibuster on Thursday from GOP state Sen. Tom Davis stopped it in its tracks. Republicans didn’t have the votes to beat a filibuster and proceed to a vote on the invoice, which requires the next threshold of votes.

“I’m not going to let this (invoice) come to a vote except this physique votes and sits me down,” Davis mentioned on the Senate ground Thursday night time.

Unable to go the restrictive invoice, Republicans as a substitute took up an modification that struck the invoice’s language and inserted language to vary the state’s current six-week ban on abortion. That ban has been blocked by the South Carolina Supreme Court from being enforced after taking impact shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned. As a state court docket continues to assessment that legislation, the state’s 2016 legislation that bans abortions 20 weeks after conception is presently in impact.

In introducing the modification, state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a Republican, conceded that the “votes are usually not there within the Senate proper now to have an abortion ban sooner than six weeks.”

“I hate that I’ve to confess that,” he mentioned, including, “You received to have the votes to go it, and we sadly don’t.”

“This just isn’t the place I needed to be. I hoped we’d do one thing fairly aggressive in response to Dobbs,” Massey mentioned in introducing his modification. “Hopefully we’re going to make progress. This modification is unquestionably progress.”

He claimed the modification would “shore up” the South Carolina legislation, S.1, in opposition to the authorized challenges and proper the problems that the state Supreme Court recognized as an ambiguity with the legislation. He argued that if the legislation isn’t mounted, South Carolina will probably be “abortion on demand.”

S. 1 bans abortions as soon as what it calls a “fetal heartbeat” is detected, which might be as early as 4 weeks, and extra generally, six weeks into being pregnant.

Massey’s modification maintains the exceptions to the ban for pregnancies which are the results of rape or incest, however shortens the timeframe. The legislation presently permits exceptions to the ban for rape or incest if the “possible post-fertilization age of the fetus” is fewer than 20 weeks. The modification would enable an exception for rape or incest as much as the primary trimester, which is up till about 14 weeks.

Several senators on the ground Thursday took situation with two subsections of the modification, which state that deadly fetal abnormalities would require a analysis by two separate physicians earlier than an abortion could possibly be carried out, and {that a} doctor performing the abortion “shall protect a DNA pattern from the fetal stays and notify the sheriff within the county wherein the abortion was carried out.” A sheriff should then retrieve and retailer the pattern in proof for 90 days, in order that the perpetrator of the rape is likely to be prosecuted.

Massey’s modification was adopted by a voice vote.

The invoice has been despatched again to the South Carolina House of Representatives, which is able to determine whether or not to just accept the adjustments.

House invoice 5399, when it was first dropped at the Senate on Wednesday, didn’t embody exceptions for rape or incest, or deadly fetal anomalies. Davis had launched a number of amendments over the 2 days so as to add again within the exceptions and was profitable in getting an exemption for deadly fetal anomalies again into the invoice.

“I made some headway yesterday in making a foul invoice higher, however it’s nowhere close to the purpose the place I can assist it,” Davis mentioned Thursday.

“And I acknowledge to a major diploma that I’m breaking with my Republican brethren,” he added.

Republican members had been deeply divided over whether or not the invoice ought to embody these exceptions – with all three of the Senate’s feminine GOP members talking out strongly in opposition to the invoice Wednesday morning.

“If you need to imagine that God is wanting you to push a invoice by with no exception that kills moms and ruins the lives of kids, let’s moms convey residence infants to bury them, then I believe you’re miscommunicating with God or perhaps you’re simply not speaking with him in any respect,” Republican Sen. Katrina Shealy mentioned Wednesday in a fiery speech on the Senate ground directed towards her male colleagues.

“I do know we disagree on quite a lot of points, however listening to you speak about menstrual cycles, conception, how you understand when your egg is fertilized or having a child, I received to let you know it actually disgusts me.”

Shealy added: “Yes, I’m pro-life. I’m additionally pro-life with the mom, the life she has together with her kids who’re already born. I care concerning the kids who’re compelled into maturity that was made up by a legislature stuffed with males to allow them to make take a victory lap and be ok with it. You need kids elevating kids who will more than likely undergo home violence and dwell in poverty. But you don’t care since you’ve carried out your job and you’ll overlook about them as soon as they’re born.”

Fellow GOP Sen. Sandy Senn additionally predicted that girls would end up in droves within the November election to vote on the difficulty of abortion, whereas additionally calling for the difficulty to be positioned on the poll.

Republican Sen. Penry Gustafson known as on lawmakers “to face actuality y’all. We don’t dwell in Dark Ages.”

“This just isn’t merely an ethical determination. And I’m not advocating for abortion on demand and I’m not advocating for abortion as contraception, however there are extra concerns that have to be undertaken,” she mentioned on the Senate ground in arguing for exceptions for deadly fetal anomalies.

Lawmakers on Thursday additionally declined to amend H. 5399 so its textual content would get replaced with a joint decision that might suggest a poll measure that might amend the structure to acknowledge a “proper of bodily integrity and autonomy that features a restricted proper to abortion.”

Conservative Republican Rep. Josiah Magnuson, who backed the invoice, advised CNN that it’s “embarrassing” that the Senate did not go a abortion ban as “most of those Republicans ran on robust pro-life” platforms.

“We’ve received to go a invoice that really protects each harmless life,” he argued. He mentioned conservative Republicans could be keen to associate with what lawmakers can do to limit abortion, however added, “I don’t suppose that is the most effective we will get.” Magnuson mentioned he helps voting down the Senate adjustments to the invoice, which if the House chooses to take action would ship the laws to a convention committee.

After the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, a South Carolina House advert hoc committee met in July to place collectively a “working draft” of H. 5399.

The authentic invoice as they drafted it sought to ban abortion at each stage of being pregnant with out exceptions for rape or incest– which, like within the Senate, was a serious level of competition amongst Republicans within the House.

The House final week unexpectedly added in an exception for instances of rape and incest as much as 12 weeks after conception, with necessities to report the declare of rape or incest to legislation enforcement, earlier than voting to advance the invoice.

The Senate Medical Affairs Committee on Tuesday then eliminated the exception for rape and incest as much as 12 weeks after conception, earlier than advancing it to the total Senate.

The Senate-amended invoice will now have to be accredited once more by the House earlier than it may be despatched to the governor’s desk.