COLUMBIA, South Carolina (Wisconsin) – Since this summer, South Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature has heard testimony, debated it, and sought to tighten the state’s abortion restrictions.
But the House and Senate remain in a stalemate over two different versions of the bill. lawand have run out of time to pass the bill and are forced to try again until next year.
A six-member congressional committee, made up of three senators and three representatives, with two male Republicans and one female Democrat representing each house, has until Nov. 13 to approve the House and Senate bills. A compromise was found between the two houses, and both houses passed the bill with a majority.
The committee met for the first time on Tuesday for about an hour, and several bills were proposed, but the committee did not vote on them or agree to send them to the rest of the General Assembly.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a ban on abortionexcept for the life and health of the mother, and the victim of sexual assault.
The Senate initially tried to pass a ban on pregnancy as well, but it failed to gain enough support among Republicans to pass it as a restrictive bill.
senator The bill was finally passed It would adjust South Carolina’s current six-week abortion ban, and the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked Since being executed as a judge in August make a decision now On challenging the constitutionality of the law.
The Senate bill also amended the language of the existing six-week ban, which led the Supreme Court to issue a temporary injunction.
both rooms would agree with the other party’s billso it was sent to a six-member conference committee that met on Tuesday to find a compromise.
To do this and send the bill to the entire Assembly, it must be approved by at least two members from each Assembly.
Two Democrats on the committee, Rep. Spencer Wetmore of Charleston County and Senator Margie Bright Matthews of Colton County, are unlikely to vote in favor of a bill that would further restrict abortion, so the four Republicans Most likely everyone will need to participate. Accept the compromise.
“I don’t think pigs have lipstick on. I think this is a cruel and restrictive bill, and I don’t think there’s any kind of change, modification or mitigation that would make it happen — we I think we’re at risk of pushing doctors out of the state and not providing health care, which women need, and possible criminal prosecution and licenses, and civil and statutory fines on doctors’ heads. I think we are curtailing women’s health care in this state whenever there is sex, please support this,” Wetmore said.
Two Republicans, Rep. John McCravie of Greenwood County and Senator Richard Cash of Anderson County, proposed less restrictive exceptions to the Senate bill and some exceptions, using the House version as a basis. proposed a bill banning abortion from conception, including elements.
After the meeting, McRabie told reporters he would vote in favor of a less restrictive bill based on the Senate’s version that would ban abortion in about six weeks, in order to enact new legislation by the deadline and break the stalemate. He said it was unlikely he would.
“Probably not,” McLavie said. “That’s why we’re back after Roe v. Wade. Not to repass the Heartbeat bill, but what South Carolina law wants our people and our state to do.” was to decide.”
But Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey reiterated at Tuesday’s meeting that not enough Republicans would vote to pass a more restrictive bill in the Senate.
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Senate support base is the only one who has a chance of getting votes in the Senate, and I think that’s very thin,” Massey said. “So if the goal is to pass something, I think it should be very close to the Senate version.
Macrabbie — who chaired a House Select Committee It took testimony and laid the groundwork for its Chamber’s abortion law this summer — in response to Massey’s repeated comments, he doesn’t want to give up on passing a ban on conception at this point.
“Well, the 1969 Mets didn’t even have a chance of winning the World Series,” McRabie said. “I mean, we don’t know what’s going to happen until there’s a real vote.”
Ultimately, the convention committee voted on neither Cash’s bill nor McCravy’s bill. Some members said they received their bills earlier in the day and would have liked more time to read them over.
The Commission plans to meet again on November 9, the morning after Election Day, to review compromises.
But even if an agreement were reached, it would be approved by a majority vote in both houses of the General Assembly, with the remainder of the day remaining on Wednesdays and Thursdays, essentially before the Veterans Day holiday on Friday and the deadline on Sunday.
If that deadline is not met, lawmakers will have to wait until the start of a new legislative session in January to reintroduce abortion laws.
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