South Carolina legislature’s final effort to tweak abortion law
A bill would repeal a provision in the state’s new abortion law requiring abortion providers to report specific details about the abortion procedure to the state’s three hospital boards
The House voted 80-4 to send the bill to the Senate. The measure would allow local boards to override abortion restrictions if they determine they are not in the best interest of women seeking abortions. The General Assembly will return to consider the bill Jan. 9 after passing a related bill the same day.
A few hours after the House vote, Senate leaders announced that they would not bring the bill forward until they receive a few days’ worth of additional amendments from House members.
After receiving more than 25 amendments to a previously proposed version of the bill, House lawmakers moved ahead with its vote.
The legislative session began July 20, and abortion-rights activists had hoped lawmakers would not allow any further attempts by the General Assembly to make changes to their law.
The vote on House Bill 1507 has revived longstanding debate about a provision in the state’s new fetal-decency law requiring abortion providers to report certain details of the abortion procedure to three hospital boards.
The measure, which was first introduced in February, was supposed to be taken up and passed by the House following several months of debate following the July 1 signing of the new abortion law. Instead, supporters of abortion rights, including the medical-rights group Planned Parenthood, were able to delay the House vote on the bill until after the Senate had voted on the provision and the House-passed bill had the final word on the abortion law.
The House vote on Thursday came after the state Senate voted Tuesday in favor of a measure, also sponsored by Democrats, that would require abortion providers to report specific details about the abortion procedure to the state’s three hospital boards without any limit on the number of other reproductive-life events the boards may request.
The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 28-7, and it was given the green light by the House later that afternoon.
But before the House vote, the House had