COLUMBIA, South Carolina — A South Carolina Supreme Court ruling, five days before the General Assembly resumes in 2023, raises the possibility that abortion bans will once again dominate legislative debates in the state.
That possibility increased on Thursday when a House subcommittee approved state hearings for the first time this year.
A grueling special session spanning a dozen meetings and hours of floor debate last summer and fall There were no new abortion restrictions. South Carolina Supreme Court ruled In early January, a 2021 law banning abortion if heart activity is detected about six weeks after conception violated the state’s constitutional right to privacy.
But one of the main proponents of the Special Sessions effort has proven undeterred as his latest proposal takes the first step toward becoming law. Republican Rep. John McCrabbie introduced a bill banning abortion with exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities, and maternal life and health.
Members of the subcommittee on Thursday reported in favor of the bill. The entire House Judiciary Committee must pass the bill before it reaches the House floor for a vote.
Republican member of the House of Representatives in a very conservative state increased the majority Seven people were elected in the midterm elections. But House Speaker Murrell Smith has acknowledged that the bill would have to go through the Senate, which last year failed to get the votes to ban abortion almost entirely.
Republican leaders in the Senate have called for caution in the days following the abortion ruling. Senate Speaker Thomas Alexander said the Senate should pay attention to how much time it spends on the issue. but did not endorse any specific proposal.
Similarly, Speaker of the House Pro Tempor Tommy Pope said abortion would not “absorb” lawmakers who had learned to balance it with other policies.
But some lawmakers say it’s time to move on to other priorities.
Republican Senator Katrina Seeley said, “We spent two sessions, three sessions working on what we know we don’t yet have a vote to pass in the Senate.” “We need to work on what we can move forward,” she said.
The terms of the debate have changed, but the conversation is not new to South Carolina.In May 2018, Democrats said at the end of a session that their opponents accused senators of delaying other pressing issues. Most abortion bans have been defeated after doing filibusters for hours. In February 2021, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the now-blocked ban.
McMaster hasn’t given up on the 2021 law.Republican Governor said Wednesday night During his annual state address, he plans to file for a rehearing of the state Supreme Court’s ruling.
Judgment of the Court of Five overturned According to the Pope, Republican leaders’ agenda is on track for the session.
“Suddenly I have a chess piece and it all seems to have been overturned,” Pope told reporters on January 9.
But McCravy’s bill shows that recent setbacks haven’t dampened interest in additional restrictions, at least among some Republicans. It is backed by 42 Republicans in a wide range of Congressional positions, including members of the conservative Liberal caucuses, House Majority Leader David Hiott, Pope and Smith.
The subcommittee meeting was announced two days before the start. After lawmakers heard nearly 30 minutes of public testimony on Thursday, McCravy voted that his new proposal to ban abortion from conception would invalidate the 2021 law due to legal concerns. He expressed confidence that it would satisfy one of three Supreme Court justices. It has benefited them from making “informed choices about whether to continue with abortion, undermining the state’s interest in stopping abortion altogether.”
“In other words, if a country were to outright ban abortion, despite the total violation of pregnant women’s right to privacy, the invasion of privacy might be reasonable… Because “human life” has no offsetting interests. Human life must be protected at all costs,” wrote a few.
South Carolina lawmakers are not alone. Many state lawmakers are facing the issue for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protection in June 2022. According to Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Pro-Abortion Research Group, the Guttmach Institute is anticipating a “very heated” legislative session. right. But Nash said the conversation has changed.
“What more can a state that bans abortion do?” Nash said. “And in a conservative state that doesn’t ban abortion, are you going to go that far?”
(See: South Carolina Supreme Court Overrules State Abortion Ban)
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