Abortion floor debate splits South Carolina Republicans

Law Review

South Carolina’s Senate debate on an abortion ban that would no longer include exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest started Wednesday with the chamber’s three Republican women taking a stand against a bill they said doesn’t respect women and doesn’t respect life.

Republicans are facing off against each other over the ban. On one side is a core group that views any abortion as ending a life. On the other are conservatives who have digested developments elsewhere since Roe v. Wade was overturned and say they don’t want 14-year-old rape victims to have to give birth, or force a mother to carry to term a fetus unable to live outside the womb.

Senators have been told the proceedings could last days. If the legislation is approved and signed into law, South Carolina would join Indiana as states that have passed near-total abortion bans since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

A first vote to try to add back the exceptions was rejected 23-6. None of the Senate’s Democrats voted, refusing to help more moderate Republicans and to keep the bill as strict as possible to try to defeat it.

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