SC House lawmakers jam six-week abortion ban into last week of legislative session

South Carolina House lawmakers are making a last-ditch effort to pass another six-week abortion ban. Before them lies S. 474, which bans all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and fetal anomalies.

The bill will leave the Judiciary Committee later this week and is expected to be debated Thursday. Since lawmakers are yet to pass a sine die resolution to end the session May 11, 2023, advocates expect lawmakers to run past the deadline and work overtime.

Though abortion bans are seen as a huge conservative cause, women question the involvement of government in their personal decisions.

Jill Hartle, 36, stood beside her husband during the subcommittee meeting Tuesday and said she had to get an abortion after the couple found out that the baby had a complicated heart anomaly during an anatomy scan in the 18th week of pregnancy.

Hartle said the heart defect would have led to a life where her daughter would have to get three severe heart surgeries, a heart transplant every 10 years and live a life surrounded by excruciating pain and narcotics.

But since consultations and confirmations took over four weeks, Hartle was forced to travel to Washington to get an abortion due to the state's 22-week law.

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

"The extra stress this state has caused me has caused so much mental trauma, I will deal with it for the rest of my life all because my state decided placing judgment and moral high ground was more important than giving us and our doctors the compassion to do what was best," Hartle said.

Several doctors from crisis pregnancy centers spoke in favor of the bill and attempted to characterize abortion as "birth control."

As the day proceeded, Rep. William Wheeler III, D-Lee, questioned the timing of the hearing and said lawmakers did not know about the meeting the week before.

He was worried lawmakers were setting a dangerous precedent by ignoring an issue that was settled by the SC Supreme Court earlier this year. The bill, he said, had not changed. Only the court had.

The bill is almost identical to the 2021 fetal heartbeat bill blocked by the SC Supreme Court earlier this year. The majority opinion authored by outgoing Chief Justice Kaye Hearn, the sole woman on the bench, said the state constitution had privacy rights that extended to a person's choice of opting for an abortion.

The ruling reverted the state to a 2016 law, which bans abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy and does not allow abortions without the presence of a physician or a certified hospital during the second trimester.

But in the following days, lawmakers made passing an abortion ban a top priority for the General Assembly. The male controlled legislation picked Gary Hill as Hearn's replacement, making the SC Supreme Court the only one of its kind to have no woman on the bench.

Then, when Senators reintroduced this year's version of a six-week ban, lawmakers said they girded the bill against future litigation by adding language that included repealing a 1974 provision that penalizes woman for getting an abortion.

Kathleen McDaniel, the lawyer who represented Planned Parenthood in the case that struck down the previous six-week abortion ban, said the language workaround would still result in litigation.

Female Senators stall, kill near-total abortion ban

Attempts to pass a total abortion ban failed April 27, when female senators, Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton and Sen. Mia McLeod, I-Richland banded together to help stall and ultimately kill a near-total abortion ban.

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

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield said it was up to the House to pass Senate Bill 474, a six-week abortion ban, to bring an end to the standoff. But the House has historically remained steadfast in its intention to advance a near-total abortion ban.

The abortion gridlock in the Statehouse has dominated for months since last year when lawmakers tried to reach a compromise but ended the year with no resolution in sight.

The push and pull between banning abortion and reversing bans will be far from over because any abortion ban will almost always end up litigated. Some lawmakers, like Senn and Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, were frustrated by the prospect of a continual back-and-forth and pushed for abortion to become a ballot question. They argued the decision of banning abortion in the state should be decided by voters.

According to a 2022 Winthrop poll, 86% of surveyed voters said a woman should be able to access abortion services if a pregnancy threatened her life or health. In cases of rape, 82% supported abortion services. The numbers dipped to 46% when asked if woman could get an abortion for any reason.

Lawmakers rushed the bill through subcommittee and expected to debate the bill on what is supposed to be the last week of legislative business. Upstate lawmaker John McCravy introduced an amendment that ran over 10 pages and sought to tweak the definition of abortion.

Any changes will have to be agreed upon by the Senate and a disagreement could lead to yet another impasse.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC House lawmakers jam six-week abortion ban into last week of session