abortion

A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the Southeastern United States has sent providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for a region with already severely limited access. South Carolina's governor signed a bill Thursday banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy, setting up an anticipated legal challenge from providers. The law Thursday goes into effect immediately. Pending bans at varying stages of pregnancy in North Carolina and Florida are threatening to further delay abortions for patients as appointments pile up and doctors work to understand the new limitations. The states had been holdouts providing wider access to the procedure in the region.

May 20, 2023 — An extensive recap of the nearly 24 hours of debate this week in the South Carolina House of Representatives over a six-week abortion ban bill. The House approved the legislative, which now heads to the state Senate.

Legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy is becoming law in North Carolina after the state's Republican-controlled General Assembly successfully overrode the Democratic governor's veto. The House completed the second and final part of the override Tuesday night after a similar three-fifths majority voted for the override earlier Tuesday in the Senate. The outcome represents a major victory for Republican legislative leaders who needed every GOP member on board to enact the law over Gov. Roy Cooper's opposition. The vote comes as abortion rights in the U.S. faced another tectonic shift with lawmakers also debating laws to sharply limit abortion in South Carolina and Nebraska.

Abortions would be almost entirely banned after about six weeks of pregnancy under a bill debated early into Wednesday morning by the South Carolina House in a development that follows months of Republicans in the chamber insisting instead on a near-total ban that the state Senate recently rejected.

South Carolina Republicans are pushing new abortion restrictions in an attempt to curtail access after a near-total ban failed last month. A Senate bill that would ban abortion except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy moved quickly Tuesday through the South Carolina House in the first sign that Republican leaders may be close to restoring limits passed in 2021 but overturned by the state Supreme Court. The measure seeks to ban abortion when an ultrasound detects cardiac activity, around six weeks and before most women know they are pregnant. It now goes to the House floor for a vote before returning to the Senate.

Abortion bans in deeply conservative Nebraska and South Carolina each fell a single vote short of passing in their legislatures amid heated debates among Republicans. It's another sign that abortion is becoming a difficult issue for the GOP. Cheers erupted outside the legislative chamber in Nebraska on Thursday as the last vote was counted. Opponents of the bill waved signs and chanted, "Whose house? Our house!" In South Carolina, Thursday's vote was the third attempt since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer to strict bans on abortion.

The South Carolina Senate is no closer to passing a near-total abortion ban than the last time they shot down the proposal. A 22-21 vote Thursday marks the third time a near-total abortion ban has failed to pass the Republican-led chamber since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade last summer. The chamber's five women filibustered the proposal in speeches highlighting the Senate's male majority. The result maintains a legislative stalemate between the House and Senate over when to ban abortion. Majority Leader Shane Massey says the House must pass a different Senate bill if lawmakers have any shot at restricting abortion by the time the session ends on May 11.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says she sees a federal role in the debate over abortion rights but stopped short of endorsing a national ban on the procedure. Haley's speech at the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America headquarters Tuesday came just days after the group blasted former President Donald Trump over his contention that abortion restrictions should be left up to individual states, not the federal government.

The Republican-controlled South Carolina Senate is set to rehash an ongoing disagreement with the GOP-dominated House over when the conservative state should ban abortion. With less than three weeks left to pass any new restrictions, the Senate this week will take up a near-total ban that already cleared the House. It is unclear why. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has repeatedly said he can't get the 26 Senate votes for the stricter House bill. Meanwhile, abortion has remained legal through 22 weeks, and out-of-state patients have increasingly turned to South Carolina for abortion care in a region that has largely curtailed access.

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.