Sen. Davis could cast swing vote on new six-week abortion bill passed by SC House
A House revision of South Carolina’s Senate Bill 474 is headed back to the upper chamber after House members voted 82-33 to approve a six-week abortion ban Wednesday.
The new language is a step back from more extreme abortion limits House members proposed to the Senate in April, opponents of which included the Lowcountry’s Republican Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort). Davis joined opposition spearheaded by all five women currently serving in the state Senate — three Republicans, a Democrat and an Independent.
Davis was critical to blocking the earlier measure, which was denied in a 22-21 vote and could again be the swing vote on this measure.
That group plans to contest the revised bill, but Davis said he’ll likely support the House’s revised version if it closely resembles the six-week ban he and his senate colleagues approved in February this year.
“I’ll make a determination whether or not it’s materially the same thing, the fetal heartbeat ban, with exceptions for rape and incest, health of the mother, life of the mother,” Davis told The Island Packet Thursday. “If it’s more restrictive, if anything in it is akin to what we’ve already rejected in the senate, which is a ban on abortion from the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg, then I’ll be against it.”
The bill’s current state specifically bans abortions, with exceptions for rape or incest, after a fetal heartbeat has been detected. That usually occurs around six weeks into a pregnancy.
Senators will have the option to reject House amendments to the bill and return to negotiating committees, or approve the legislation as-is and send it to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk.
Should the bill be passed, it will face another challenge from the South Carolina Supreme Court, which already struck down a previous abortion ban in January. That ban also prohibited abortion after six weeks.
This story was originally published May 18, 2023 at 3:17 PM.
