South Carolina lawmaker explains why he supported abortion bill after initial opposition

Judy Woodruff:

In the absence of Roe v. Wade, a complicated and fast-changing patchwork of abortion laws has emerged state by state.

Many state lawmakers move quickly to expand or restrict abortion access, and both new and old laws have been tested and tied up and legal challenges. Currently, 14 states have total or near total bans on abortions. And with a vote last night, South Carolina is one step closer to joining them.

Lisa Desjardins has more.

Lisa Desjardins:

Last night in South Carolina, as abortion rights protesters chanted outside, the Statehouse of Representatives passed a near-total abortion ban. That bill allows abortions in a few situations, in cases of rape or incest in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Those require a police report soon after the abortion. Other exceptions, if the woman's life or a major body function is at risk from the pregnancy. That bill now heads to the state Senate. The debate drew national attention this month after Republican State Representative Neal Collins openly regretted backing a law that was briefly in effect. It banned abortions when a heartbeat is detected.

He then spoke of a 19-year-old woman who was miscarrying a second-trimester pregnancy, but, because of that law, attorneys told doctors not to treat her.

State Rep. Neal Collins (R-SC):

She's going to pass this fetus in the toilet. She's going to have to deal with that on her own. There's a 50 percent chance, greater than 50 percent chance that she's going to lose her uterus.

There's a 10 percent chance that she will develop sepsis and herself die. That weighs on me. I voted for that bill. These are affecting people. What we do matters.

Lisa Desjardins:

Representative Collins did not support the near-total ban now moving through the Statehouse in committee, but he did support a version that passed last night.

And he joins me now.

Representative Collins, thank you for joining us.

You have expressed real concern for abortion restrictions perhaps becoming too extreme. Why did you vote for the bill last night that was more extreme than the bill that you seemed to regret?

State Rep. Neal Collins:

Thank you, Lisa.

And that last little bit is probably where the national narrative is incorrect about regret. If we watched longer than that one minute, it was a two-hour committee, and, in that process, Democrats were being cut off.

My point was what we do in that committee matters, that people should have the right to speak. So, what I truly was saying is, this is an important matter. Everybody should have their chance to represent their constituents.

If I do have a regret as far as a six-week ban, what I regret is that we weren't even more specific. I believe a six-week ban that we passed should and would have protected this 19-year-old that I mentioned. But, as an attorney — I'm an attorney — I understand that the hospitals in that first week or two wanted to be extremely careful and conservative with how they read the language, which was a good thing, because it led to how we improved this bill.

We specifically listed 12 to 14 different situations where the life of the mother would be protected. So, hopefully — and this was, I hope, made clear — hopefully, nothing like that would happen in South Carolina moving forward.

Lisa Desjardins:

I just want to track back to what you said in committee. And we did watch a lot of that footage. You said you were not able to support that bill at that time. That bill is not very different from the bill that you supported last night.

So, what has changed?

State Rep. Neal Collins:

To me, it was a significant difference, what we amended.

I actually voted against the bill last night, the original bill. The original bill was a complete ban with no exceptions. We had a daylong, about eight-, nine-hour debate yesterday.

And, with that, we voted that original bill down, and then we amended it to include both the rape and incest exceptions. And the reason that's so important to me is, for the past eight weeks — I represent 42,000 people in arguably the fourth most conservative district in all of the nation. I represent, basically, Easley, South Carolina.

So, over eight weeks, I have been contacting hundreds of my constituents, and to probably about three-fourths of my constituents wanted further restrictions, but they also wanted the exceptions in these cases.

Lisa Desjardins:

When you talk about rape — and you have written about your thoughts in extensive Facebook posts — you have expressed concern for the trauma of rape and said that you don't want to add to that trauma.

But this bill requires a police report, whether or not a rape survivor feel safe doing that. Why is that necessary to get an abortion, if you're making a rape exception?

State Rep. Neal Collins:

I personally don't think that it is.

But, again, I have served…

Lisa Desjardins:

But you did vote for this bill.

State Rep. Neal Collins:

Right.

I have served for eight years, and I have voted for hundreds of bills. And I can tell you that not one bill has been completely what I want. That's the whole nature of the compromise.

To me, it falls onto two more important issues within our society. And this — I went viral nationally. None of my people, none of my constituents saw that, because we are so divided, we are seeing completely different news sources, completely different intake of information.

I had a grand total — of my 42,000, a grand total of three constituents reach out to me and say that they saw me going viral. So, what that tells me is, my constituents did not hear that. They do not receive the same information. And that is concerning for both my state and for our nation.

And then the second thing — and, obviously, if you scroll through any of the social media — is our national dialogue and our ability to have civil discourse. I think those two situations are what we really should be talking about.

Lisa Desjardins:

Part of the conversation you have been having, and you have been weighing in on wrestling with, is who would be affected by the abortion ban that you voted to pass.

And you have been talking a lot about, in fact, realizing that many people who have abortions became pregnant while using contraception. That's something you have expressed concern and thought about.

How do you wrestle with closing off abortions to women like that, even in earliest pregnancy, who may have tried to avoid pregnancy, but contraception failed?

State Rep. Neal Collins:

This bill is a reflection of our viewpoint as a state that we want to protect life.

And it is a — I believe a majority viewpoint that life begins at conception. So that is where this bill is coming from.

Lisa Desjardins:

I wonder if you are you sure that this law that you voted for will not harm women's lives, put women in jeopardy, as you felt that woman you talked about was in jeopardy from a previous law.

State Rep. Neal Collins:

I hope that we cleared as many unintended consequences as we could.

This is a process. It now goes to a whole separate chamber, our Senate. Hopefully, they will digest the language that we have. They have something to work with. Hopefully, they will have medical expert testimony. I know that they already have.

I hope that we are able to clear as many possibilities as we can.

Lisa Desjardins:

South Carolina state Representative Neal Collins, thank you for talking with us.