abortion ban

The South Carolina House shows no signs of budging from its proposed abortion restrictions. For the second time since the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal abortion protections, the chamber's Republican supermajority has passed a near-total ban. By a 83-31 vote on Wednesday, the House advanced a ban from conception. The bill has exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly and the patient's health and life. The move puts the House proposal at odds with the Senate's ban on abortions after cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks.

South Carolina's attorney general on Monday is asking the state's high court to reconsider its ruling striking down the state's six-week abortion ban. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed the rehearing request with the South Carolina Supreme Court on Monday. The court, in a 3-2 decision earlier this month, ruled that the 2021 law banning abortions when cardiac activity is detected, at about six weeks after conception, violated the state constitution's right to privacy. Wilson said he disagreed with the decision and argued that the framers of the privacy provision did not envision it as a right to abortion.

An abortion ban is once more beginning to move through the South Carolina General Assembly. A House subcommittee on Thursday approved the first such ban to get a public hearing in the state this year. Sponsored by 43 House Republicans, the bill indicates that proponents of a ban have been undeterred by recent setbacks. A long special session last year failed to produce a new abortion restriction. In early January, the highest court in South Carolina had ruled a 2021 law violated the state's right to privacy. The effort comes as other state lawmakers across the country debate the issue for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections.

Last week the SC Supreme Court ruled the state’s six-week Fetal Heartbeat Law unconstitutional stating that it violated a woman’s right to privacy as provided by the state constitution. That left the previous 20-week abortion law in effect. The court’s decision didn’t sit well with the state’s conservative Republican leadership opening the door for another abortion debate, and lawmakers signaling they may also begin something they have long avoided, closer scrutiny of the judicial philosophy of potential Supreme Court justices.

he top state courts in conservative Idaho and South Carolina have gone in opposite directions on challenges to abortion bans. The contradictory decisions Thursday are part of a patchwork of policies that have sprung up since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that there is no federally protected right to abortion, pushing the issue to states. Across the country, advocates for abortion rights are making similar arguments to try to get restrictions and bans struck down. But differences in state constitutions and state justices can lead to different outcomes in those cases.

After a dozen meetings and sessions over the summer and fall, South Carolina efforts to pass a stricter abortion law have failed. Senators Wednesday rejected a House-backed proposal and House members didn't return for another meeting to try and work out a compromise. The bill failed in a small conference room after senators rejected the House-backed compromise again. House members did not come back after that 21-23 Senate vote to negotiate with the bill's main sponsor. South Carolina has an abortion ban after cardiac activity can be detected about six weeks after conception. But the state Supreme Court has suspended the law as it considerers whether it violates the state constitution's right to privacy, leaving a 20-week ban in place for now.

South Carolina senators have again rejected a proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state. But they left open a small chance Tuesday some compromise could be reached. The stalemate in the Republican-dominated Legislature hasn't changed for weeks. The Senate voted 26-17 Tuesday to insist on its bill keeping South Carolina's current ban on abortions after cardiac activity is present, usually around six weeks. The House insisted on its own version of a full ban last month with exceptions only for pregnancies from rape or incest, or if the mother's life were threatened. The bill now goes to a conference committee.

Whether conservative South Carolina changes its abortion laws at all in the wake of this year's U.S. Supreme Court decision is about to be decided by divided conservatives in the state House. Members on Tuesday either accept a Senate-passed bill that tweaks the state's six-week ban, or, the House can insist on its own bill outlawing all abortions except when the life of the mother is at risk or if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. (That ban isn't in effect at the moment because of a state Supreme Court challenge.) Typically, the House and Senate would then negotiate their differences. But Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey says there aren't enough Republican votes in the Senate for anything stricter than the six-week ban.

The White House and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say a Republican-led proposal to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks would endanger the health of women and have severe consequences for physicians. The measure introduced last week by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina proposes a nationwide ban that would allow rare exceptions. The legislation has almost no chance of becoming law in the Democratic-controlled Congress. GOP leaders didn't immediately embrace it and Democrats are pointing to the proposal as an alarming signal of where Republicans would try to go if they were to win control of the Congress in November.

Upending the midterm elections, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has introduced a nationwide abortion ban. The bill would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the physical health of the mother. The legislation introduced Tuesday is sending shockwaves through both parties with just weeks before voters go to the polls. Graham's own Republican colleagues did not immediately embrace his abortion ban bill, which has almost no chance of becoming law in the Democratic-held Congress.