- A South Carolina judge has temporarily suspended a law banning most abortions after six weeks.
- The legislation passed in the state senate with the support of 27 men.
- Five lawmakers, dubbed the “Senator Sisters”, had previously obstructed a similar ban on abortion.
South Carolina’s governor signed a bill banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. A day later, a judge temporarily suspended him.
The “Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” passed the state Senate with the support of 27 men, according to The Daily Beast.
After fierce debate over the ban, the “Senator Sisters, five state senators — including three Republicans — blocking the state from passing a near-total ban on abortion, all voted against it.
The law, signed Thursday, prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of “rape or incest during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, medical emergencies or fatal fetal abnormalities”.
But the state temporarily reverted to its previous law, which banned abortions after 22 weeks, according to the BBC.
There have been months of heated debate in the South Carolina Senate on the issue, and the five women lawmakers had previously obstructed an attempt in April to almost completely ban abortion in the state.
Even though the law is currently on hold, Sen. Sandy Senn — one of the Republican lawmakers who voted against the bill — told Insider in an email that the past two weeks have been “difficult and difficult. “.
“We’re going to band together and try to fix this mess,” Senn said.
Another lawmaker, Senator Penry Gustafson, changed her mind about her stance on the six-week ban – which she voted for in February – a version of the bill that also failed to pass.
“Funny thing, as you learn and piece together facts over time, sometimes your perspective shifts,” Gustafson recently told The Daily Beast.
Although she supports some restrictions on abortion, “I’ve heard from too many women that six weeks is not long enough,” Gustafson said.
Katrina Shealy, another Republican senator from the state, tried to introduce an amendment to the latest legislation that said abortion care should instead be banned after 12 weeks.
“Men are 100% responsible for pregnancies,” she said during the introduction of the amendment, according to the Daily Beast. “Men are fertile 100% of the time. So it’s time for the men in this room – and those across the hall and across the state of South Carolina – to take some responsibility for ‘ejaculation.”
Despite women’s protests, the amendment was defeated.
The newly proposed law comes after a series of abortion bans across the United States following the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. Earlier this year, South Carolina proposed the death penalty for women who have abortions, Insider previously reported.
Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic in South Carolina, called the bill’s signing “unconscionable” on Twitter.
Earlier in the week, she wrote“Twenty-seven Republican men (all) voted today to ban abortion in SC. I’m gutted. Because women are going to die. Period.”
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