By Bill Davis, senior editor | It is spring and hope has returned to some quarters of the General Assembly that more can be done to tighten the noose around abortion rights in South Carolina. Whether anything becomes law, however, is a long and complicated political puzzle.
This year, there are 12 different abortion-related bills that have been introduced in the House and the Senate. Of those, more than half the bills seek to, depending on which side of the debate is speaking, to support pro-life policies or limit women’s access to health care.
Whether these bills enjoy any kind of success, national groups with state chapters, such as like Planned Parenthood, have vowed to fight many of them as aggressively as if they were about to be signed into law.
Background
For the past decade, this is the time of the legislative year when abortion bills have hit the House floor for debate, that is, if the proposals make it out of committee. In 2009 at the beginning of the Great Recession budget woes in the legislature, current House Judiciary chair Greg Delleney (R-Chester) attached an anti-abortion bill to that year’s end-of-session budget bill package.
That move by Delleney, a stalwart abortion foe, caused quite a stir among House brass, as the time was as short in the session as money was in state coffers. Additionally, members of both political parties grumbled about having to debate such a controversial topic on the floor of the House and especially at such a critical time.
This year, Delleney is one of the sponsors of H. 3548, otherwise known as the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act. The bill would, again depending on the side of the debate, either protect living children in the womb or it is a “method ban” that would create criminal penalties for providers.
Last week, Delleney’s committee voted favorably to send the bill to the House floor for debate.
State Rep. Beth Bernstein (D-Columbia), who serves under Delleney on Judiciary, said that the state has “no business” telling doctors how to perform a medical procedure.
Bernstein said that she believes supporters of bills like H. 3568 are not “pro-life,” but “anti-choice.” That being said, Bernstein said that she and Delleney have found “common ground” on other bills which they have both signed on for, like the Pregnancy Accommodations Act, which would seek to better protect pregnant women in the workplace.
Delleney declined to comment for this article saying that the reporter had “insulted” him years ago and that he was “through” with him.
Bump in the road
In the Senate, Sen. Larry Grooms (R-Bonneau) has vowed to continue the fight to limit abortions.
“It’s my job to make all my colleagues in the Senate see the issue the way I do,” he said.
But Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg) pooh-poohed Groom’s chances. “Have you seen any of those bills make it out of committee even? There’s your answer.”
Hutto has sponsored a bill in the Senate this session, the Healthy Youth Act, that would require uniform sex education be taught across the state.
But he said, that won’t be a perfect solution as he expects every school district to teach sex ed differently, “in much the same way they teach math and science differently. I just want it to be the same standards of material, and they can teach it how they want.”
Proof of how thorny an issue abortion has become in that chamber, there is language buried in Hutto’s bills that restricts school districts from providing contraceptive medication in secondary and elementary schools. It also would block them from offering “abortion counseling, information about abortion services, or assist in obtaining an abortion …”
The language appears to be boilerplate, as it appears similarly in another bill this year that looks to prevent teen dating violence.
Last year, Grooms had some success, as a bill he’d first introduced and championed four years before went into effect. It blocks women from receiving an abortion after their 20th week of pregnancy.
“I have no illusions that any of those bills I put forward this year will make it out of committee,” said Grooms, referencing one bill that calls for enhance reporting of “complications” occurring during abortions.
But he stressed, it was the first step in what can be a four-year process. First, he said, an issue has to be raised in that chamber for a year. Second, members like to take a session or two to research the issue and calculate any political gain or fallout. And then third, debate and vote.
Committed to fighting
Vicki Ringer, spokesman for this state’s chapter of Planned Parenthood, which provides women’s health procedures and counseling, said her organization isn’t taking any chances. She said her organization will take every bill seriously, fighting and organizing against them all, for the same reason Grooms gave: they keep coming back year after year.
“It doesn’t matter what their chances are,” Ringer said. “,We are going to fight against those who want to cut off women’s access to a full range of health care options.
Where Grooms sees the issue as literally “life and death,” Ringer said his side is using a political argument in a medical discussion.
Ringer praised the bipartisan effort in the General Assembly in a bill that would require insurance companies to cover a 12-month supply of female contraceptives.
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