(opening music) ♪ ♪ ♪ Gavin: Welcome to a special This Week In South Carolina.

I'm Gavin Jackson at the Statehouse in Columbia.

On June 24 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned nearly 50 years of abortion precedent in Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization.

It returned the issue of abortion to the states, and in doing so created immediate life and death changes in several states across the country.

And three days later in South Carolina, the six week abortion law, which bans nearly all abortions in the state took effect.

A lawsuit blocked that new law when it was signed in February 2021.

But it was briefly implemented after Dobbs into another lawsuit filed in The State Supreme Court blocked it in August.

Republican lawmakers in Columbia saw the Dobbs decision as their chance to restrict abortion access before six weeks and spent the summer and part of the fall taking hours of testimony and debating the bill.

But ultimately, the vote was not there in the Senate for a near total abortion ban as was passed by the House with limited exceptions.

This is the story of how after years of posturing, and months of loud deliberations as part of a special legislative session, the abortion debate in South Carolina ended without fanfare the day after the 2022 midterms, and election where abortion access played a key role in House and Senate races across the country.

The Dobbs ruling overturning Roe and subsequent abortion precedent has been a desire of Republicans since the US Supreme Court established the landmark case in 1973.

But over the past few years, the court has become more ideologically conservative, thanks in no small part to the role of one prominent senator from South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham.

Sen. Graham: And if I am chairman next year.

if we keep the majority and Senator Grassley moves over, and I hope he doesn't, because I think he's done a great job.

I'm going to remember this.

There's the process before Kavanaugh and the process after Kavanaugh.

If you want to vet the nominee, you can.

If you want to delay things for the next election, you will not if you try to destroy somebody, you will not get away with it.

Gavin: Graham has been a key player in fulfilling Republican goals of getting more conservative judges on the Supreme Court, including the three during President Donald Trump's term justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who was confirmed just weeks before the November 2020 presidential election, something President Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland was denied eight months before the 2016 election.

Sen. Graham: Now tell you this.

This may make you feel better.

But I really don't care.

If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term.

And the primary process is started.

We'll wait to the next election.

And I've got a pretty good chance of being the... <You're on the record.> Yeah.

<All right.> Hold the tape.

But under the Constitution, we have a job to do.Right?

I'm here to tell the people of South Carolina I intend to do my job as chairman.

(Applause) Gavin: And Graham did that following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020.

As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, he expedited the confirmation of Notre Dame Law Professor Amy Coney Barrett, Sen. Graham: so that Roe v Wade compared to Brown versus Board of Education is not super president.

I'm not super president, Not as I was using that term.

And the articles that have been referred to Gavin: Not only was Graham, the chairman of the consequential Judiciary Committee at the time, but also was in the midst of his own reelection campaign.

Sen. Graham: My opponent said the main reason he ran against me was because of the way I behaved in the Kavanaugh hearings.

And here's what I can say the main reason I'm going to win is because of the way I behaved in the Kavanaugh hearings.

Gavin: The Appointments solidified a strong six to three conservative majority on the High Court, just as the consequential Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization case out of Mississippi was moving closer to the Supreme Court.

The case involved whether a 15 week abortion ban in the state of Mississippi was legal.

When 24 weeks had become an accepted point of viability established by prior rulings.

The Dobbs case reached the Supreme Court in December 2021.

10 months after South Carolina lawmakers passed an even more restrictive six week abortion ban.

Governor Henry McMaster promptly signed into law.

Gov.

McMaster: Ladies and gentlemen this step we take today was long, incoming and monumental in consequence, but our battles are not over.

Yet I believe that the dawn of victory is upon us.

I asked the citizens and I asked the General Assembly to send me a bill, send me the heartbeat bill.

And I would sign it.

And you have and now I will.

(applause) Gavin: The law was immediately blocked in the courts as abortion rights groups challenged its constitutionality.

South Carolina's law was dubbed by proponents the fetal heartbeat law.

Because abortions are permitted up until the point an electrical signal representing cardiac activity can be detected, typically around six weeks, a time when most women don't even know that they're pregnant.

A true heartbeat can't be detected by regular ultrasound until the heart is formed around 16 to 17 weeks, which is closer to the 20 week limit.

That was the law in South Carolina prior to the six week ban.

But an unprecedented moment occurred in May 2022.

The draft opinion of the Dobbs case was leaked in a nationwide frenzy ensued.

Former Vice President Mike Pence who is gearing up for a 2024 presidential run, happened to be in Spartanburg shortly after the news broke, for a fundraiser at the Carolina pregnancy center, which councils women from getting abortions.

(singing) Mike: And I don't have to tell all of you we gather tonight at a historic moment in the 50 year history of the pro life movement.

When I believe with all my heart that soon and very soon, the Supreme Court of the United States may well overturn Roe vs. Wade and give the American people a new beginning for life.

Gavin: Outside the event, a preview of protests that would soon occur on June 24, 2022.

Reporter: Thank you for joining us on this Friday night on a day that changed America.

We're outside the Supreme Court after the landmark decision that overturned Roe versus Wade and ended a woman's constitutional right to an abortion.

The court upheld Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks by a 6 to 3 vote and five of those justices went even farther voting to overturn Roe vs Wade itself.

Today's opinion is nearly identical to the draft that leaked from the court last month.

Justice Samuel Alito rejecting the 1973 landmark ruling in Roe scorning the idea that the Constitution protects a right to choose abortion.

Roe was on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided Alito wrote, it is time to heave the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives.

Similar scenes Gavin: There were also happening at the statehouse, here in Columbia as well.

Natasha: I was angry, you know, like I said, so I'm going on 11 year Air Force veterans, this isn't the country I've taught for.

These are not the rights that I fought to keep intact, you know, so I'm ashamed.

I'm ashamed that I'm angry.

Reign: It's really important for me not to lose hope.

Because I can get into a cycle of hopelessness and a cycle of negative thought.

But it's really important for me to remind myself that there's always something that I can do.

And so what I did today, I came to the rally.

What I'm going to do tomorrow is called by legislators.

What I'm going to do today after that is call my legislators you know, so it's just important to remember and remind yourself of what you're capable of.

Gavin: Three days later, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals where South Carolina's law was currently being litigated, dismiss the case at the request of Governor McMaster, who along with other state officials had been named in the suit.

On June 27th, the six week abortion ban went into effect in South Carolina for seven and a half weeks.

While this was happening, Republican House and Senate leaders were gearing up to hear hours of testimony for a new restrictive abortion law as tensions mounted.

This was a moment many lawmakers in the Republican controlled state house had been waiting for.

Donald: I'm an ambassador for the King of kings and the Lord of lords Jesus Christ, and I'm a preacher of the gospel at the Greenville murder mill.

Thus saith the Lord GOD, abortion is murder.

And God wants it abolished completely no exceptions.

Jack: I'm here to speak as a South Carolinian a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a father, a brother, an uncle and an American.

I'm here today because I believe abortion and birth control access should be expanded and protected in this state.

Gavin: In August the House Judiciary Committee received the bill drafted by the abortion ad hoc committee chaired by Greenwood, Republican Representative John McCravy.

But not all Republicans, many of whom had just narrowly won their June primaries were in favor of the restrictive bill.

One tense moment came between Republicans and Neil Collins and Committee Chairman Chris Murphy over the current six week law that was causing turmoil.

Rep. Neal: I voted for the Plan capable bill, the fetal heartbeat bill.

And fetal heartbeat has been for six weeks now.

The second week, that this that the fetal heartbeat Bill became law a doctor call me out of Anderson I live in Easley.

A 19 year old girl appeared at the ER, she was 15 weeks pregnant, her water broke.

And the fetus was unviable.

The standard of care was to advise her that they could extract or she could go home.

The attorneys told the doctors that because of the fetal heartbeat bill, because that 15 week old had a heartbeat, the doctors could not extract.

So their only choices were to admit the 19 year old until that fetal heartbeat stopped.

I asked how long does it take to stop?

She said seconds, minutes, hours, maybe days or discharge.

They discharged that 19 year old.

The doctor told me at that point, there's a 50% chance well first, she's gonna pass this fetus in the toilet.

She's gonna have to deal with it on her own.

There's a 50% chance greater than 50% chance that she's gonna lose her uterus.

There's a 10% chance that she will develop sepsis and herself die.

That weighs on me.

I've voted for that bill.

These are affecting people.

And we're having a meeting about this.

Thank God I followed up two weeks later, she did return to the ER they did extract the now non beating fetus.

What we do matters.

Thank you, Representative Collins.

One second, Mr. Chairman, I'm almost finished.

Out of respect for the process.

I'm not voting today.

But I want it to be clear that myself and many others are not in a position to vote for this bill.

Without significant changes to the bill.

Gavin: A close vote sent it to the House floor where a special session had been called the day before session, anti abortion activist prayed over lawmakers desks in the House chamber in an unusual display.

The 43 members of the House Democratic Caucus, however, saw a rare opportunity to take advantage of a fractured Republican Caucus, which was torn with those pushing for an extreme near total abortion ban, and others who wanted stronger exceptions for incest, rape, the life of the mother in fatal fetal anomalies.

Democrats only put up one amendment to go on record for greater abortion access, and joined the far right members and voting down amendments to make the bill more palatable to the ire of moderate Republicans who were soon faced with a critical vote.

I am Rep. Caskey: I am however profoundly disappointed that when the opportunity was presented, members of this chamber chose to play political games.

And I guess that's just the state of affairs.

And that's how we're going to do it for the next couple of days.

Rep. Leon: We didn't start down this path with the heartbeat bill.

We didn't start down this path with the bills that came before it.

We are not the ones who appointed the justices that strip those rights away from the women of South Carolina and this country.

Gavin: Republicans were in disarray.

They recessed for a tense two hour long caucus meeting, then failed to pass the extreme bill by a vote of 47 to 55.

Before adding by voice vote, exceptions for rape and incest up to 12 weeks with reporting to local law enforcement.

That bill passed 67 to 38.

Rep. Hiott: And I'll tell you right now, every single person in that caucus had a hand in it.

It wasn't me.

It wasn't these folks.

It was every single person that came to us and said we won't something we're going to we're willing to give up.

We're willing to work.

We're willing to do whatever it takes.

And that's that's where we were.

And so when you got that many personalities in there, it takes a little bit longer.

Gavin: While dysfunction reigned in the house, it was always understood that the Senate would be the firewall in this debate.

It was well known that the Senate which is comprised of 30 Republicans and 16 Democrats didn't have the necessary two thirds votes to end a filibuster against the restrictive house abortion bill.

The Senate Medical Affairs Committee heard about eight hours of testimony regarding abortion, and later narrowly moved the House bill out of committee to the floor after removing rape and incest exceptions.

This led to heated committee exchanges and floor debate primarily involving Republican Senator Tom Davis, and anti abortion activist, Senator Richard Cash.

Sen. Cash: Are we going to protect human life in the womb?

Or is that just something that and I don't mean to be insensitive to anyone's past, but is that is the human being in the womb nothing more than the property of the woman?

A very valuable property if the woman wants that unborn baby.

And a property that can be disposed surgically or chemically, if she doesn't want the unborn baby is that what the unborn human being is at the end of the day?

Property, of the pregnant woman.

Sen. Davis: And I can't support an amendment fairly read that we require my daughter at 12 years old to carry a baby to term and deliver it.

What in the world kind of an impact is that going to have on her?

Now I'm told that it's going to be fine that that we've talked to a lot of people and they're happy.

And I'm glad that there are some that have that have worked out well.

But there are others that have not others that have committed suicide, others that have done themselves bodily harm.

What about their rights?

What about their rights consult with their pastor, their family, their physician, not with 170 legislators in Colombia, Gavin: The three Republican Women of the Senate also criticized the bill during the debate, and even had heated exchanges with members of their own party.

Sen Shealy: Ladies and gentlemen, I don't want any 10 year old who is raped by her 13 year old brother.

And yes, it happened right here in West Columbia, to be afraid the cows first, no one told her about sex because there's no sex education in elementary school.

She didn't know she was pregnant until she was six months and she was forced to have a baby at 10 years old.

The chances of this young girl's reproductive system ever being normal.

And her having children children with someone she really loves have greatly diminished, not to mention her psychological damage.

But the South Carolina legislature we know best.

But you ask why am I talking about this?

Isn't she pro life?

Yes, I'm pro life.

I'm also pro life of the Mother, the life she has with her children who are already born.

I care about the children who are forced into adulthood that was made up by a legislature full of men so they can make take a victory lap and feel good about it.

You won't children raising children who will most likely suffered domestic violence and live in poverty.

But you don't care because you've done your job.

And you will forget about them once they are born.

You will fight my legislation on foster homes and adoption, you will fight not support legislation to stop sex trafficking and pornography, you will not support my legislation for free meals for all children in schools.

Gavin: The Senate added exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomaly as well as the life and health of the mother to their abortion bill, which is similar to what's already on the books in the six week abortion law that was set to be heard in the state Supreme Court due to the August lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood, South Atlantic and others.

But when the Senate version returned to the House, Republicans insisted on their version of the bill, even though it was clear the Senate could not pass it.

Rep. McCravy: I think we came back to do a job.

To do something after the Dobbs case.

We didn't come back to do the same thing we had already done.

So this bill, we want to advance the cause of life and not just not just do what is already on the books.

Gavin: Senate members.

As expected.

Were not able to pass the House bill that came back in a conference committee of three house and three senate members was created.

The next day, October 19.

The five Member States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether the six week abortion ban law violates article one section 10 of the state's constitution.

Just.

Few: How do we distinguish between the policy judgment of where we think the line ought to be and the legal judgment of where the line can't be crossed?

And it has to be what you said per se, or, or in other words, in order for us to have to invalidate a certain line 20 weeks, six weeks, whatever, we would have to find that it's basically unreasonable as a matter of law, that that is what we're seeking.

In other words, we would you could put all sorts of different ways of describing it on there, but we would have to say there's not a way that a rational decision making body.

Such as the House or Senate of South Carolina could decide that this was reasonable.

Because if they did that that is, per se unreasonable.

Julie: Yes, this court applied a categorical rule in singleton as to when forcible medication of inmates is permissible.

We are asking for a categorical ruling that it's six weeks of pregnancy, an outright ban on abortion is categorically unreasonable.

<But you're not asking those that say, when is a good time?> I am not I am responding to the courts understandable questions about how to decide.

<We deal with the law here.

We don't make policy.> Yes.

The question as to your question, Justice Few.

Obviously the question before this court is not what it would have done had it been in the legislature.

It is what the law requiring that.

Gavin: despite seeing the overturning of Roe as a victory, Republicans didn't run on the issue of this fall, especially since voters in Kansas rejected a measure to restrict abortion earlier this year.

Winthrop University political science professor and poll Director Scott Huffman found that among voters and 11 southern states, there's overwhelming support for exceptions.

In abortion legislation.

Scott: The overwhelming majority of both Democrats and Republicans and the majority of citizens and that too, we polled the general population are in favor of legal abortion, especially under some circumstances.

So for example, the number of people who are in favor of legal abortion, in the case of the health of the mother, especially the life of the mother, those are overwhelming numbers among you know, anybody democrat or republican anybody else.

And the same is true with other exemptions when you know when you're looking at in the case of rape, for example.

So it's not necessarily true that hey, we're in the Bible Belt, people are automatically going to be against abortion.

They might not nobody's in favor of abortion, but they do believe in legal abortion under at least some circumstances.

Gavin: Unlike in other states, the abortion issue didn't sway many voters here in solid red, South Carolina, in fact, incumbent Republicans won by some of their biggest margins, only one State House Republican that really felt the heat of his abortion voting record to contribute to his defeat.

And that was Columbia Republican Representative Kirkman Finley who lost to Democrat Heather Bauer by 235 votes.

Professor Huffman weighed in on how abortion played at the polls.

Scott: No, and that's you know, and that's something that the strong pro life anti abortion crew is going to have to deal with.

While they have the influence in South Carolina while South Carolina is so dominant red for the temporary and foreseeable future, they're going to have to lean into these types of bills, if they want to get it passed, we may see a case coming up, you know, towards the Supreme Court.

But again, the Dobbs decision is the rule of the land and state legislators are getting the say, I fully expect the folks who would put personhood bills and the strong restrictions on abortion and bills to come back in the next legislative cycle and try it again and try and rally the troops.

But the more centrist Republicans and a centrist Republican would be fairly far right and most of the rest of the country, but a Center of South Carolina Republican is not going to want to dive into this issue.

And we may see it getting before committees, but not making it to the floor again.

Gavin: The day after the elections.

Senate members who are up for election in 2024 returned to take up the conference committee bill, even though the votes again were not there.

This led to a predictable outcome in the Senate.

And when another conference committee was held House members citing scheduling conflicts, or absent the move led to a frustrated and candidate speech from Senate Majority Leader Shane Massiey.

Sen. Massey: But I'll tell you that if we want to move the ball forward, the whole effort has to change.

Because I don't care how it's been done for 50 years, there's been a lot of progress, but at the effort now is it's fire and brimstone.

And if you don't, if you're not with us on every single issue, then we're going to take you out so be it.

There are people out there who think I liked his job a lot more than I actually do.

Because I'll tell you what I did after June, I didn't want to see y'all again this year.

Now, most of you shouldn't take that personally.

But like if that's what voters have, that's what they do.

That's what they do.

Right?

Everybody in here knows this is gonna be an issue in the election in 24.

So be it.

Right if you can't defend how you vote, then you shouldn't be here.

And if you truly believe and you get beat because of something you truly believe then that's okay.

That's how the process works.

But there is no way to do legislation if the two bodies won't talk, and we're in a position right now, where the house won't even talk to us.

And so for those who wanted to advance the cause of life, I don't know what else to do.

Gavin: In the end, the votes still weren't there in the Senate to pass an extreme near total abortion ban bill.

The process made clear that South Carolinians don't favor such an extreme measure without exceptions.

And the results of the midterms reinforce that notion at nationwide, with a red wave being more of a ripple, but that wave is still strong in South Carolina.

And abortion will once again be a major focus when lawmakers return for a new two year session in January.

But the session will start with frayed relationships between and inside of the house and senate chambers.

Other priorities will also be fighting for attention as well.

Lawmakers will also be waiting to see how the state Supreme Court rules on the current six week law.

And we'll be following that here on this week in South Carolina and on the South Carolina Lead.

A podcast that I host on Tuesdays and Saturdays that you can find on southcarolinapublicradio.org or wherever you find podcasts for South Carolina ETV, I'm Gavin Jackson, be well South Carolina.

Captioned By: SCETV (Closing Music) ♪ (Thanks for watching!)

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