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The State House Gavel
The State House Gavel shares updates about the South Carolina General Assembly, including legislative actions, debates and discussions. Featuring news and interviews, so you have access to the latest developments in policy and decisions that shape South Carolina’s future.

The State House Gavel: House OKs abortion drug limits but dumps hemp, Senate passes DUI bill

South Carolina Public Radio | By Maayan Schechter,
Gavin Jackson
Published February 5, 2026 at 6:01 AM EST
in the House chamber at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
in the House chamber at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.

Statehouse reporters Gavin Jackson and Maayan Schechter are back at the Capitol reporting what you need to know when lawmakers are in Columbia. They'll post news, important schedules, photos/videos and behind-the-scenes interviews with policymakers.

It's Thursday, Feb. 5.

The House gavels in at 10 a.m.

The Senate returns at 11 a.m.

You're reading The State House Gavel, your daily reporter notebook by Maayan Schechter and Gavin Jackson that previews and captures what goes on at the South Carolina Statehouse.

We've almost made it through Week 4.

And before we let you go home for the week, we figure it's a perfect time to remind all of our readers that penalties for South Carolina's hands-free law violators take effect this month.

Law enforcement will start giving out tickets on Feb. 28.

Notebook highlights:

  • House passes legislation to restrict access to abortion-inducing medication
  • You're not hallucinating: hemp bills upend the House
  • Why the sponsor of the Senate DUI bill says the legislation was something of an "atonement"
The South Carolina Statehouse
GAVIN JACKSON
The South Carolina Statehouse

House targets abortion meds in early floor rights

South Carolina could become the latest state to restrict access to abortion-inducing medication.

The House on Wednesday voted 81-31, mostly along party lines, to pass H. 4760, legislation filed by Judiciary Chairman Weston Newton, R-Beaufort, that would:

  • Increase penalties for anyone who mails, distributes, transports and delivers medications to induce abortions without a prescription
  • Reclassify commonly used abortion medication, mifepristone and misoprostol, as a Schedule IV controlled substances, putting the pills in the same category as Xanax and Ambien and tightening access to the drugs that are also used to treat miscarriages and post-partum hemorrhages

The bill is very similar to a law passed in Louisiana in 2024, which reclassified the drugs as dangerous controlled substances, limiting access to those drugs that critics say further endangers women's health.

What did Republicans say?

State Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, said the legislation's intent was to close a "loophole" in the law. At the same time, as many lawmakers noted, reducing abortions by medication would reduce the number of abortions in South Carolina.

But for some Republicans, particularly the body's most conservative legislators, the bill did not go far enough.

Efforts to further restrict abortion access — the state has a six-week ban on the books — failed. State Rep. Rob Harris, R-Spartanburg, criticized the legislation as only going around the edges.

Though well intentioned, the bill falls short of "protecting all life equally," Harris said.

What about Democrats?

State Rep. Spencer Wetmore, a Charleston Democrat, warned a reclassification could have dire consequences, particularly for women who need the medications for beyond abortions.

Here's what she told us below:

S.C. Rep. Spencer Wetmore, D-Charleston 2.4.2026

What happens to the bill now?

The bill heads to the Senate, which has its own version of the legislation. If signed into law, it will likely face a legal challenge as it has in other states that have passed or tried to pass similar restrictions.

Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, moves to table an amendment to the abortion inducing pill legislation in the House chamber at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, moves to table an amendment to the abortion inducing pill legislation in the House chamber at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.

Hemp takes a hit

The House did not stop at abortion medication on Wednesday.

And things got sporty — in an inside baseball kind of way — that turned into a rare upset loss for House Republican leadership.

It was parliamentary procedure Olympics, as one lawmaker put it to The Gavel.

The scene: The House began the day hoping to pass two hemp-related bills, H. 4758 and H. 4759. Both bills would target consumable hemp products, with the former banning them and the latter focused on regulating the sale and distribution.

Except they went 0 for 2.

Let's back up.

It all started with the chamber's debate on H. 4759, which would require hemp beverages to be sold in liquor stores, restrict the beverages to delta-9 THC, and limit drinks to 5 milligrams THC per 12-ounce can or bottle. That bill would also outlaw sale and possession of other consumable hemp products (for example, gummies) and make them Schedule I controlled substances. And it would prohibit online sales and shipments into the state with a penalty of up to three years in prison or fine up to $3,000.

Here's how the extended debate went, in highlights:

  • Bill supporters argued that treating hemp beverages like liquor keeps the products out of the hands of minors and prevents the "Wild West" of ingredients and potency that exists today.
  • Some members, like Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, argued against the bill because they favored an outright ban on all hemp products, citing the negative effects of the consumables, especially when mixed with alcohol.
  • Democrats and some Republicans balked at allowing beverages while banning all other products.
  • Republican Rep. Gil Gatch, of Dorchester, said the bill would shutter 1,800 businesses and affect 3,500 jobs.
  • Enter newly-sworn in freshman Rep. Greg Ford, R-Dorchester, who has only been on the job for three weeks but may have turned the day with two bombshells: a 28-page amendment and a personal story.
  • Ford told his new colleagues he knew the issue well because he has been a state-licensed grower and processor of hemp but also a user of hemp products due to his now 24-year-old son, who began suffering from life-threatening seizures as a child. He credited hemp products for extending his son's life. Ford's extensive amendment, in part, would prohibit the sale to minors, further regulate and tax the products, allow for up to 10 milligrams in delta-9 drinks and allow other consumables.
  • The amendment failed in a close vote but it was now clear the underlying bill was in trouble and it set off two hours of parliamentary wrangling and more close votes mixed in with some impassioned floor speeches.
  • Rep. Weston Newton, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the bill's sponsor, eventually acknowledged the division, and noted that the intent of the bill is to prevent minors from obtaining these products and to protect public safety.
    “When this goes over to the Senate, this conversation is not over. There will be continued opportunities for discussion," he said.

But, rather than vote to send to the bill to the Senate, the House sent the bill back to the House Judiciary Committee, where it's future is unclear.

So, what's next?

The House adjourned after a nine-hour day, before starting debate on H. 4758, the bill to completely ban hemp consumables. And as of publication, there wasn’t much clarity on the fate of either bill.

Rep. Greg Ford, R-Dorchester, speaks on his amendment in the House chamber during the hemp-derived consumables bill, H. 4759, debate at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.
GAVIN JACKSON
Rep. Greg Ford, R-Dorchester, speaks on his amendment in the House chamber during the hemp-derived consumables bill, H. 4759, debate at the Statehouse on Feb. 4 , 2026.

Unanimous Senate backs DUI bill

After weeks of debate, the Senate passed legislation — S. 52 — in a 45-0 vote to toughen up the state's laws dealing with driving under the influence.

The Senate passed the bill after weeks of back-and-forth over amendments, including a handful brokered between Democrats and Republicans.

The bill's author, Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, rallied with victims and advocates earlier Wednesday to push for the bill's passage, saying he believes his legislation ultimately does what Senate leaders intended for it to do: help victims and send a message to drunk drivers.

Davis also had a personal motivation on the bill.

A few years ago, Davis was cited for public intoxication by police and spent a few hours in jail after he pulled his car into a parking lot New Year's Day after realizing he couldn't drive.

Davis was not charged with a DUI and the case was expunged.

He told us working on this legislation was a bit of an "atonement in some respects."

Listen to what he told us:

S.C. Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, on DUI legislation 2.4.26

The bill heads to the House.

What about Thursday?

The Senate is expected to move onto Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree's bill — S. 454 — dealing with charter school accountability.

But we're told the chamber may also take up, possibly first, S. 287, filed by Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, that deals with regulating the sale of electronic nicotine products, like vapes. The legislation passed the Senate already but was amended by the House, pushing it back to the upper chamber, which will decide whether to accept those changes.

S.C. Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, answers questions from Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, about DUI legislation on Feb. 4, 2026.
MAAYAN SCHECHTER
/
SCETV
S.C. Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, answers questions from Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, about DUI legislation on Feb. 4, 2026.

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Maayan Schechter
Maayan Schechter (My-yahn Schek-ter) is a news reporter with South Carolina Public Radio and ETV. She worked at South Carolina newspapers for a decade, previously working as a reporter and then editor of The State’s S.C. State House and politics team, and as a reporter at the Aiken Standard and the Greenville News. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2013.
See stories by Maayan Schechter
Gavin Jackson
Gavin Jackson graduated with a visual journalism degree from Kent State University in 2008 and has been in the news industry ever since. He has worked at newspapers in Ohio, Louisiana and most recently in South Carolina at the Florence Morning News and Charleston Post and Courier.
See stories by Gavin Jackson