Both sides get a final chance to talk about SC abortion ban

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — After years of legislative wrangling over a bill that would ban almost all abortions in South Carolina, the public got what likely will be one final chance to speak for or against the ban.

About 50 people testified both in person and online at Wednesday's House subcommittee hearing before the panel advanced the proposal. The bill passed the Senate last month after years of setbacks.

South Carolina lawmakers have been holding public hearings for years on the “ South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. ”

It would require doctors to use an ultrasound to try to detect a fetal heartbeat if they think pregnant women are at least eight weeks along. If they find a heartbeat, and the pregnancy is not the result of rape or incest, they can’t perform the abortion unless the mother’s life is in danger. That can be as soon as six weeks after conception and before many women know they are pregnant.

Wednesday's meeting had familiar testimony — limited to three minutes per speaker — from all of those hearings.

There were pastors saying every life matters. There were women's rights groups saying the bill takes away control of women's bodies.

There were doctors. There were women who had abortions and regretted the decision and those who had them and asked lawmakers not to take away that choice from other women.

There were women with heartbreaking stories of choosing to end pregnancies when told the fetus couldn't survive outside the womb and adults who told tales of mothers who didn't want them but decided to take their pregnancies to term instead of having an abortion.

After 3 1/2 hours of testimony, the subcommittee voted 3-2 on party lines with Republicans prevailing to send the bill to the full Judiciary Committee, likely...