COLUMBIA — A bill touted as making South Carolina’s abortion ban the strictest nationwide proved to be too extreme even for a panel packed with anti-abortion Republican legislators.
The proposal that received national attention over the last few months ultimately failed Tuesday with a 2-3 vote. Four of the panel’s six Republicans declined to vote on the bill itself, enabling the three Democrats to sink it.
A vote to outright reject a GOP-led bill is rare in the South Carolina Legislature. Usually, legislators let bills that lacks support quietly die at the subcommittee level by indefinitely delaying a vote — if there’s a hearing at all. But after a day-long public hearing last month and an hours-long meeting Tuesday didn’t sway the sponsor — who also happened to be the panel’s chairman — in at least changing sections opposed by some of the state’s most fervent abortion foes, the panel proceeded to an up-or-down vote.
And it showed the bill doesn’t stand a chance even among Republicans, said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg.
“We just think the vast, vast, vast majority of South Carolinians are against this,” he said.
Supporters could still try to revive the legislation after the Legislature returns in January. But the bill’s failure to advance through a subcommittee led by the sponsor, Sen. Richard Cash of Anderson County, almost certainly means that would be futile. Even a co-sponsor on the panel couldn’t vote for it.
Dubbed the Unborn Child Protection Act, the bill would ban abortions from the moment a pregnancy is “clinically diagnosable.” (The odd wording is meant to avoid prohibiting emergency birth control or fertility treatments.)
All Republicans on the panel were generally OK with a near-total ban on abortion. And separate legislation that goes further than the state’s six-week ban that took effect in August 2023 could get traction next year.
But what went too far in Cash’s bill for most Republicans were sections that criminalized women for getting an abortion, removed all exceptions for victims of rape or incest, and made it illegal to even advise someone on how to get an abortion elsewhere.
Attempted changes
The bill would allow women to be sent to prison for up to 30 years for an abortion. It also would allow her own relatives to sue her.
That was too much even for co-sponsoring Sen. Billy Garrett, who tried to delete that section. When his amendment failed 4-5, the Greenwood Republican proposed capping the punishment at two years in prison or a $1,000 fine, unless the woman who received the abortion agreed to testify in court against the person who performed it.
But that failed 4-4, with Cash noting his bill already gave women immunity from prosecution if they agreed to testify.
Garrett ultimately was among the four who didn’t vote.
“This world needs more love than hate,” he said. “This world needs more forgiveness than hate. And we’ve got to work toward that.”
Sen. Tom Fernandez spoke through tears about the possibility that his wife or one of his six daughters could end up imprisoned under the law.
“I cannot see women be put in jail,” said the Summerville Republican. “I can’t. If we’re going to sit here and continue to talk about women as if they were the worst creatures on earth, I might as well say that to all six of my girls.”
And yet, he was among the two Republicans who backed the bill in the final vote.
Taking out the punishment would “gut the bill,” Cash said. He contends the possibility of severe prison time or a potential lawsuit is needed to prevent women from getting abortion medication through the mail for an at-home abortion. That’s already illegal in South Carolina, though ordering the two pills online from providers in states with shield laws remains possible.
“How can you have a law that criminalizes some action and then say if you break the law, there’s no penalty?” Cash said. “It’s not even logical.”
Sen. Tom Corbin, R-Greenville, tried to remove a section making it illegal to even direct someone to a website providing information on getting an abortion.
Telling people what they can and can’t say would violate First Amendment free speech rights, Corbin said.
“It would break my heart if somebody tells somebody where to go get an abortion,” he said. “But I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of this country and this state, and I have a hard time supporting a bill with a section in it that basically says what you can and can’t talk to somebody about.”
Cash likened that section to laws against hiring a hitman to kill someone.
“You don’t have the right to provide information to someone on how to kill an innocent person,” Cash said.
Democrats voted against every amendment offered.
“You can’t make something bad better by voting for things, so we just voted against everything,” Hutto said.
Noting that South Carolina’s law already rates as among the nation’s most restrictive, he said, “To go any further is just an outright attack on women and doctors.”
Doctors would face 30 years in prison and loss of their medical license under the bill. Opponents contend doctors’ fear of the existing six-week ban already delays emergency medical care for women. Threatening doctors with 30 years in prison will endanger women further, they testified.
“There are so many things in this bill that are flawed,” said Ronnie Sabb, D-Greeleyville.
Only one amendment passed, and it was Cash’s. It allowed someone to take a juvenile to another state for an abortion with parental permission. It also allowed doctors to refer patients to specialists in states where abortion is legal. And it removed a section requiring the resuscitation of premature stillborn babies after a doctor testified last month that doing so would be pointless and torturous.
Beyond Hutto and Sabb, the other Democrat voting “no” was Deon Tedder of Charleston. Beyond Garrett and Corbin, the other Republicans not voting were Jeff Zell of Sumter and Matt Leber of Johns Island.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
