Defiant female senators help stall SC's near-total abortion ban. What's next for lawmakers?

Five defiant female South Carolina senators ― three Republicans, one Democrat and one Independent ― helped block a near-total abortion ban Thursday at the Statehouse in Columbia.

With only a week away left in the legislative session, the only five female State Senators banded with Democrats and three male GOP Senators to filibuster and push the debate as long as they could to build pressure.

Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, followed by Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw, Sen. Sandy Senn, R-Charleston and counterparts, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton and Sen. Mia McLeod, I-Richland, each took the well and dove into scenarios of complications in pregnancies, health issues and the mental toll of dealing with law enforcement in cases of rape and pregnancy.

They explained the complexities of a reproductive system, the dangers of lack of access to contraception and the holes in the privacy statutes while warding off four attempts to cut the debate short by rival lawmakers.

They questioned why lawmakers refused to discuss the hate crimes bill, especially since it was inspired by the death of one of their colleagues, Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who died in the Charleston Mother Emanuel Church Massacre.

"The biggest proponents of the Human Life Protection Act are also the same proponents of constitutional carry, school choice, parental rights and regulating vaccines for everyone, especially children," Shealy said on the Senate floor Thursday.

These were the same lawmakers, she said, that didn't want the government regulating masks due to COVID-19.

Previous reporting: SC Senate ignores calls for referendum, now one vote away from near-total abortion ban

The current bill, H.3744, prohibits all abortions with exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomaly. Anyone who violates the proposed law will be fined $10,000 or get imprisoned for up to two years, or both. The bill also states a pregnant woman who has an abortion will not be criminally prosecuted or found civilly liable and mandates that the father pay child support. But it does place the burden of criminalization on the physician who performs the abortion.

"But when it comes to a woman's body when she becomes pregnant, she suddenly belongs to the government," Shealy said. "Once somebody rapes her or she becomes a victim of incest, she would now belong to the government. Once a woman became pregnant for any reason, she would now become the property of the state of South Carolina."

When it became clear that the chamber would not be able to move on and conduct other business, lawmakers voted 22-21 to push the bill to the next year, killing any chances of it passing during the current legislative cycle.

Reproductive rights activists hail this as a major victory, for now.

Vicki Ringer, Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said the government should never force a person to carry a pregnancy or give birth against their will.

"But this male-dominated legislature is hellbent on controlling the decisions of women," Ringer said.

Here's how Senators were able to push the abortion debate to the next legislative session

An SC Senator can speak on an issue as long as they want. During the third reading of a bill, Senators often use filibustering as a tactic to stall the passage of a bill and maintain pressure. Once the bill has been debated for over two hours, a legislative body can invoke cloture and limit debate. But for that to happen, the chamber needs to muster a special majority, which in this case means getting 26 or more votes.

The dissent from three male GOP Republican leaders, Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry and Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, was critical and bolstered the support for the female legislators.

This Republican pushback irked Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, who said that some in the GOP were trying to move goalposts of what counted as Pro-Life by endorsing a six-week, eight-week or 12-week ban.

"I'm not willing to sit by and let the goalposts be moved on what it means to be Pro-Life in the Republican Party," Cash said.

McLeod went on to talk about previous legislation she had filed that would regulate Viagra, which the men in the chamber joked made them uncomfortable.

But Shealy's point was oft-repeated Thursday.

The Lexington lawmaker, who is known for a career working with children, said that it looked like lawmakers cared more about unborn babies than they did about kids who languished in the system, waiting for a loving family to adopt them.

The abortion ban may result in thousands of more babies being born in a year.

"They'll forget about them after they're born," Shealy said. "They will not want to feed them or educate them or fill their needs in foster care if a mother or family cannot care for them."

There were over 100 children, the majority teens, up for adoption on the SC Dept. of Social Services website.

"But no one wants to adopt them because they aren't a newborn," Shealy said.

Senn, who filibustered for over four hours, came prepared in her flip-flops.

In an exchange with Gustafson, the two lawmakers stated the General Assembly had spent over a million dollars debating abortion and finding no resolution.

"So everything costs state money when we started into these fights," Senn said. "And when it gets to the point that you have to ramp up security — I mean, doesn't that tell you you're on a seriously divisive issue? An issue that probably is best left to every voter?"

During the first round of voting, Hembree tried to insert an amendment that would make abortion a ballot issue in 2024. But he was denied after Senate President Alexander Thomas, R-Oconee, ruled that it was inapplicable to the proposed bill.

On the final day of the consideration, once it became clear that the bill was not going to go anywhere unless Republican holdouts flipped their votes, the men in the chamber started to discuss a breakthrough.

But women in the Senate refused to back down. Senn said she was ready to debate the abortion bill to the end of the session before considering other bills that were being "shoved" toward her.

Where does the abortion issue stand?

The Senate's vote Thursday means that nothing has changed since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey reiterated Wednesday that there are not enough votes in the Senate to pass a near-total abortion bill, according to a press statement.

"The House must pass Senate Bill 474 quickly and bring an end to the ever-increasing abortion numbers in South Carolina," he said.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC's near-total abortion ban stalled by female senators. What's next?