The South Carolina House on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that would prohibit most abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected.
The South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, which mandates abortions be stonewalled if providers detect a heartbeat on an ultrasound, excluding cases of rape, incest, and physical danger to the mother, passed with a 79-35 vote.
The legislation cleared the Senate on Jan. 28 with a 30-13 vote and will need to move past a final House procedural hurdle before it makes it to the desk of Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has indicated he plans to sign the bill as soon as possible.
The legislation passed with the support of over two-thirds of House lawmakers, despite staunch opposition from Democrats. Nearly all members of their caucus walked out of the chamber in protest at one point, and opponents of the legislation have floated lawsuits and other counter measures to hinder its implementation.
“You love the fetus in the womb. But when it is born, it’s a different reaction,” state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a Democrat, said of the bill.
SC House Democratic caucus now walking out of chamber in protest of abortion ban. @RepRutherford says they won’t participate in debate or vote. #scpol pic.twitter.com/WJqAMAs3LD
— Jamie Lovegrove (@jslovegrove) February 17, 2021
Republicans praised the bill as one that will save lives and embodies the values of the anti-abortion movement.
“It’s encouraging to all the pro-life people who are out there, and it tells the rest of the nation that we stand for life,” state Rep. John McCravy said. “We want to save as many lives as possible, and the quicker this is passed, the quicker it will go into effect.
State Rep. Melissa Lackey Oremus echoed McCravy’s sentiment, saying, “They don’t deserve to die just because their mother made a bad choice one night.”
The legislation would not criminalize those who seek an illegal abortion but could impose felony charges on anyone who performs one. The punishment includes a maximum term of two years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.
On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision in Roe v. Wade that abortion was a right protected by the Constitution, but several states have implemented restrictions against the procedure.
South Carolina joins Indiana, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and other states in which anti-abortion bills have been over the past two months. Similarly, 11 governors have deemed abortion care as a nonessential health service in coronavirus relief efforts since the onset of the pandemic, but many of the proposals were struck down in court.
