A SC Republican senator voted against an abortion ban. Now her party is censuring her

Javon L. Harris
·2 min read
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A female Republican state senator in South Carolina has received a slap on the wrist after standing in opposition to a six-week abortion ban.

State Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, was censured, or reprimanded, Monday by the Lexington County Republican Party, for her stance on a six-week abortion ban.

Last month, the state Senate voted to approve House changes made to a six-week abortion ban — S. 474 — that would prohibit abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically around the sixth week of pregnancy, when most people don’t know that they’re pregnant.

The present bill includes exceptions for rape and incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, fatal fetal anomaly and if a mother’s life is at risk.

Only five women are in the S.C. Senate, out of 46 members. All five of them — three Republicans, one Democrat and one Independent — voted against the six-week ban.

“All of you listening to me that have daughters and granddaughters, ... I want you to stop and think about the laws that you’re making for their future,” Shealy said in May during an abortion debate on the Senate floor. “If you haven’t talked to them, why don’t you ask them how they feel about having you and the state of South Carolina being in their bedrooms, at the dinner table, in the doctor’s office and in the locker room?”

The six-week ban has since been temporarily blocked by a state court judge after Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the Greenville Women’s Clinic and two physicians who provide abortions in South Carolina immediately filed a lawsuit after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the bill into law.

“Being pro-life is a bare minimum expectation for Republican legislators in Lexington County and Sen. Shealy has unfortunately failed that test very outwardly,” Lexington County Republican Party Chair Pamela Godwin said in a statement after the local party’s executive committee decided to censure Shealy during their Monday meeting.

Neither Shealy or Godwin could be reached for comment.