Amendments were tabled to add exceptions to fetal abnormalities to the bill and to expand sex education in schools.
Senate minority leader Brad Hutto took a few minutes before the final count to explain Democrats’ decision to abstain from amendments.
“You’re asking us to pass this policy in an effort to make a really, really bad bill a little bit better,” Hutto said. “And we’re just not going to get involved in that, and I hope you respect that. And maybe you don’t understand. But those of us who abstained from voting on your amendments were not because your amendments are not worthy of our consideration. And as standalone bills next year, I can tell you I would support them all.”
“But this is a terrible bill. I just can’t say that enough,” he continued. “What we’ve seen here is the Republican-majority effort to impose an extreme total ban on abortion for women in South Carolina.”
South Carolina Republicans have been slowly tearing down reproductive rights in the state, but US Supreme Court move to overturn them Roe v. Wade in June paved the way for the legislature to completely ban the procedure. But in an interim year, as voters — as seen in the defeat of a Kansas ballot amendment — provide more clues about how the general electorate feels about procedural restrictions, Republicans are looking for the safest political path leading up to November. .
Republicans’ moves to ban abortion this summer have had mixed results. While Indiana passed a ban last month that will go into effect later this month, the West Virginia legislature failed to reach a consensus on further restrictions at a special session in July.
This political tap dance has already played out in the more conservative South Carolina House, which has pushed forward the near-total abortion ban with the added exceptions for rape and incest. An earlier draft of the bill, with no exceptions for rape and incest, turned out to fail. Tuesday’s move by Senate Democrats to abstain from voting appeared to mimic the House Democrats’ strategy of making the bill undesirable for some Republicans who may not want to vote for a ban without such exceptions.
Multiple Republican senators in South Carolina have also said they will not support a bill without these exceptions, That reports the Associated Press. The composition of the Senate is 30 Republicans and 16 Democrats.
Even if the exemptions were added again, patients who attempt to use such exemptions to receive care will face a host of legal hurdles and will be able to more easily travel across state lines for an abortion.
The Associated Press and Megan Messerly contributed to this report.
