SPECIAL SESSION: SC lawmakers back at statehouse to discuss proposed abortion bans

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Lawmakers are back at the statehouse with more work to do.

Last week, Governor Henry McMaster ordered a special session so that the House and Senate can pass a budget as well as compromise on issues such as bond reform and abortion bans.

“We are attempting to take away the medical judgment of doctors who have trained for years,” said Rep. Rosalyn Henderson-Myers, a Democrat from Spartanburg.

“Not only is this a waste of time, this is an invasion of privacy,” agrees Rep. Heather Bauer. “Our personal freedoms and liberties are at stake.”

Pro-choice supporters are concerned about the rights of women. On the other side, pro-life supporters are focused on saving unborn lives.

“A gentleman called this this morning asking ‘Senator Shealy… are you really killing babies?’ No, I’m not killing babies,” said Republican Sen. Katrina Shealy. “I’ve probably saved more children than all 124 of them put together. It’s time for that to stop. It’s time to start saving babies. They should pass the bill we sent them to begin with.”

While the majority of lawmakers in both chambers hope to pass an abortion ban this special session, Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate differ on what that ban should look like.

“I told them not to change as much as a semicolon, so I can pretty much tell you that I will not vote on whatever they send us,” said Sen. Shealy. “We’re not budging. It’s time to stop that.”

The Senate version of an abortion ban bill, S. 474, is a six-week abortion ban with a list of exceptions. However, the House version is different. 

“We have to save children. That’s what matters right now,” said Rep. Josiah Magnuson, a Republican from Spartanburg.

The House’s proposed bill makes abortion illegal from the moment of conception with limited exceptions. 

“The Senate is not going to pass that. We don’t have the votes for that,” Shealy said. “The House sat on that all year and wants to complain about how many babies have died. They’re the ones killing babies. All the babies that have died since February are on their backs.”

Democrats in the House submitted around a thousand amendments to the Senate’s abortion ban bill, meaning that Tuesday’s debate on the House floor could just be the beginning.