The Men of the House Keep Trying to Ban Abortion

S. 474 to ban abortion at six weeks goes back to the Senate next week

It’s a bummer to have Henry McMaster as your governor, not least because just when you think the constant onslaught of bad legislative decisions might be over and you could enjoy the summer just a little bit, he decided to call a special session to make it easier to execute people with lethal injection, pass permitless carry, and try to ban abortion at six weeks (check out

Brutal South

this week for a good rundown).

The legislature reconvened on Tuesday, and the Democrats showed up to reveal the absolute hypocrisy in the Republican’s attempt to classify the passage of S. 474 as a fight for “life.” The Democrats filed over 900 amendments to the six-week ban, both in an attempt to slow the passage of bill and to demonstrate how anti-woman it really is. It was really telling to watch the majority of the House vote against the very policies that could improve women’s lives in the state. I like following actual doctors on Twitter, and really appreciate the activism of Dr. O’Brien, who summed up the votes this way:

Now the bill goes BACK to the Senate, because the House amended it by adding 14 pages (there is some weird stuff in there about doctors having to record abortions they do perform, and if they mess up the records, another felony!). I guess the men in the House didn’t believe the Sister Senators when they said they wouldn’t vote to approve the bill with even a semicolon changed?

Here’s Senator Sandy Senn breaking it down on CNN:

Watch all the way to the end of the video if you can, when she details how the Republican party leadership is targeting the three women Republicans who have voted against the bans, promising to block their reelection in 2024. If you don’t think it’s about misogyny, Senn points out they have not similarly targeted the three Republican men (Tom Davis, of Beaufort, and Horry County’s Greg Hembree and Luke Rankin) for their oppositions to the bans. Apparently the men are allowed to have an opinion.

If you live in Senators Davis, Hembree or Rankin’s district, please be sure to contact them to voice your opposition to S. 474, which the Senate will take up next week. If it passes, and the Governor signs it, it will be immediately challenged, because the South Carolina Supreme Court threw out an almost-identical ban in January, arguing that banning the procedure at six weeks violated the state constitution’s guarantee of the right to privacy. The legislature is apparently hoping that the new all-male state Supreme Court will overturn its previous ruling. I remain hopeful that this is highly unlikely, based on what I’ve heard about about new Justice Hill’s approach to precedent, and the fact that Justice Few’s opinion to overturn the ban seemed to hinge on balancing the right to privacy with his view that the state did have a compelling interest to protect “life.” The fact that this ban is still six weeks makes it unlikely Justice Few would reverse his decision.

(If you’d like to show up in person to protest, join the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network next week on May 23rd from 12-5. RSVP here.)

But really the only way to guarantee women’s rights going forward is to show up at the polls next year. I’ll be certainly spreading the word that our supposedly moderate House Representative, Jason Elliott, voted for the six-week ban. And just like our rabidly anti-abortion 80 year old Senator, Dwight Loftis, he still has never returned a call or email. In their defense, McMaster calling them back for all these special sessions surely keeps them very busy. Senator Loftis and Representative Elliot, call me!