South Carolina Republicans splintered over abortion restrictions as the state Senate Thursday rejected a total ban but settled on new limits to the existing abortion law.
Originally, Republicans sought to pass a bill banning abortion without any exception for rape or incest but were met with resistance from fellow Republicans, especially women, who believed the law was too extreme.
Instead, the Senate tightened restrictions that already exist in the six-week ban law that is currently blocked by the state Supreme Court. The bill passed, 27-16, with three excused absences. None of the female state senators, including both Republicans and Democrats, voted for the bill.
Currently, the law states rape and incest victims can receive an abortion up to 20 weeks. The Senate’s legislation would narrow the time frame to 12 weeks.
The bill will also require doctors who perform abortions under the rape and incest exception to provide a DNA sample from fetal tissue to law enforcement.
Several female Republicans, many who have supported abortion restrictions in past legislative sessions, called out male colleagues during the two-day debate for wanting a more extreme total ban without exceptions.
State Sen. Katrina Shealy addressed her male colleagues on the Senate floor, stating that she does not want “anyone in this room making life or death decisions for me, my daughter, my granddaughter — for that fact, anyone.”
She said she does not want a 10-year-old girl who was raped by her 13-year-old brother and does not know what sex is to have to give birth to a child.
“I care about the children forced into adulthood, that was made up by a legislature full of men, so they can take a victory lap and feel good about it,” Shealy said. “You want children raising children … But you don’t care because you’ve done your job, and you will forget about them once they are born.”
State Sen. Sandy Senn, who is in favor of exceptions, echoed Shealy’s comments. She said fellow Republicans need to remember their party creed and not follow the extremists that made the issue of abortion “so big.”
She said that the legislature should put abortion on the ballot — similar to Kansas, where voters in August rejected a measure stripping abortion access protections from the constitution — but knows her colleagues won’t because “y’all are too scared to do that.”
“Y’all think you know better than your own constituents. Y’all have said, time and again, your constituents want this. Mine don’t,” Senn said. “I can tell you now, mine don’t … we can do better than this. We are better than this.”
The contentious Senate debate comes a week after the state House passed legislation with exceptions for rape, incest, and endangering the life of the mother. The Senate-passed version will now go back to the House for review.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Senn for comment.
