Rape, incest exceptions pulled from S Carolina abortion bill

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A group of South Carolina senators voted Tuesday to remove exceptions for rape and incest from a proposed abortion ban with Democrats choosing not to vote in what appeared to be a strategy to try to prevent the bill from passing through the Legislature.

The 7-3 vote in the Senate Medical Affairs Committee involved all Republican men. The committee then took a break before considering more changes as it decides whether to send the bill to the Senate floor.

The same bill without the exceptions appeared to fail in the more conservative state House last week before some Republicans maneuvered through a series of votes to allow abortions for rape and incest victims up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

Democrats are not going to help Republicans out of a box of their own making by making “an awful bill a very bad bill,” Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said.

“We think by highlighting the fact a bunch of extreme, Republican men are trying to control women’s decisions in South Carolina — they need to own that. The governor needs to own that,” Hutto told reporters during the break.

Republicans told their Democratic colleagues their strategy was shortsighted.

“It looks like when they had the chance to help women, they didn’t,” Republican Sen. Michael Gambrel said.

Several Republicans senators have said they cannot support the bill without the exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape and incest. There are 30 Republicans and 16 Democrats in the state Senate.

Two of the Republicans are on the 17-member Senate Medical Affairs Committee — Sens. Tom Davis and Sandy Senn. Six Democrats are also on the committee.

Davis told the committee he thinks the rights of a mother who is pregnant to control her own body have to be balanced with the rights of fetuses to their...