COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy — before most people know they are pregnant – and sent it to the governor who has promised to sign it.
The proposal restores a ban South Carolina had in place when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year — a ban that, once it took effect, was overturned by the state’s highest court because it violated the state Constitution’s right to privacy.
Republicans have been searching for an answer to that ruling because it left abortion legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy and sharply increased the number of abortions taking place in South Carolina as most other Southern states enacted stricter laws.
South Carolina is among the last bastions in the region for those seeking legal abortions, but that status likely will end soon.
Most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned in North Carolina beginning July 1 after the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature successfully overrode the Democratic governor’s veto last week.
Abortion is banned or severely restricted in much of the South, including bans throughout pregnancy in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. In Georgia, it’s allowed only in the first six weeks.
The South Carolina bill includes exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies, the patient’s life and health, and rape or incest up to 12 weeks. Doctors could face felony charges carrying two years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has said he would quickly sign the bill into law.
The women of the Senate known as the “sister senators” — the three Republicans, one Democrat and one independent who are the only women in the 46-member chamber — entered the State House together Tuesday to rousing cheers from dozens of abortion rights supporters gathered on the main floor.
All five donned buttons that read “elect more women.”
Tuesday marked the fourth time that the chamber has taken up abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned a similar 2021 law as a violation of the state constitution’s right to privacy in a 3-2 decision this January. But many Republicans believe the latest version would stand after changes to both the proposal’s language and the court’s makeup.
