COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Wednesday The South Carolina Senate will debate a near-total abortion ban that right now, does not include exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
Abortion exceptions for rape and incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy were removed by a 7-3 vote from a Senate committee Tuesday.
Democrats abstained from voting in an effort to prevent the bill from passing through the legislature.
“This is an awful bill. I just can’t say that enough,” said Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, (D-Orangeburg). “What we've witnessed here is the Republican majority’s attempt to impose an extreme total ban on abortion on women in South Carolina."
"You can’t put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig. Exceptions do not make abortion restrictions less harmful," said Sen. Marlon Kimpson (D- Charleston).
The bill, H. 5399, passed out of committee by a 9-8 vote. Republican Senators Tom Davis of Beaufort and Sandy Senn of Charleston joined Democrats to oppose the bill.
"If my 12 year old daughter got raped and my 12 year old daughter became pregnant, this amendment takes away my right to counsel her, it takes away the physicians right to counsel her," said Davis.
Sen. Richard Cash (R-Anderson) proposed the amendment to remove the rape and incest.
“Does the legislative body have the authority by a majority vote to set the conditions whereby an innocent unborn baby can be killed? Do we have that authority by a majority to vote to say, ‘This baby is protected. This baby is not?," said Cash.
Senators also adopted an amendment that would make it clear that birth control such as IUD's and Plan B are allowed under the bill.
However, Democrats refused to vote on a number of amendments proposed by Sen. Davis.
They included increasing access to contraceptives and including birth control as part of the state’s abstinence-based sex education as well as assuring that a doctor can perform the abortion if it is determined a fetus has a medical condition that won’t allow it to live outside the womb.
The bill includes a number of health conditions that would allow doctors to perform abortions. Although it does not criminalize South Carolinian's seeking an abortion, it outlines penalties for those who perform the procedure.
It also includes banning the selling and buying of drugs that induce abortions.