SC abortion ban gets hearing for first time this session

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina Supreme Court decision five days before the General Assembly returned for 2023 raised the possibility that abortion bans could once more dominate legislative debate in the state.

That likelihood increased on Thursday when a House subcommittee approved the first abortion ban to get a public hearing in the state this year.

A grueling special session spanning a dozen meetings and hours of floor debate throughout last summer and fall resulted in no new abortion restrictions. Then the highest court in South Carolina ruled in early January that a 2021 law banning abortions when cardiac activity is detected, at about six weeks after conception, violated the state constitution's right to privacy.

But one of the leading proponents of the special session's effort proved undeterred as his latest proposal took the first step toward becoming a law. Republican Rep. John McCravy introduced a bill that would ban abortion from conception with exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly and the mother's life and health.

Lawmakers on a subcommittee Thursday gave the bill a favorable report. The entire House Judiciary Committee must now pass the measure before it can reach the House floor for a vote.

House Republicans in the deeply conservative state increased their majority by seven members in the midterm elections. But Speaker Murrell Smith has acknowledged that any bill would have to pass the Senate, which lacked the votes last year for a near total abortion ban.

Senate GOP leaders urged caution in the days following the abortion ruling. Senate President Thomas Alexander said the upper chamber should exercise care with the amount of time it spends on the matter. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey expressed confidence the issue would not...