COLUMBIA, S.C. (Wednesday, March 30, 2022) – The South Carolina Senate and the House of Representatives are in a race to pass nearly identical versions of the Abortion Pill Reversal Act by April 9, 2022, the cutoff date to get legislation moved from one chamber to the other.
On Tuesday, the House caught up with the Senate when the House Judiciary Committee gave a favorable report by a 15-8 party-line vote for H 4568, the Abortion Pill Reversal Act, that requires abortion businesses to inform women that there is a window of opportunity to reverse the lethal effects of the chemical that kills the unborn child up to 10 weeks gestation. Representative John McCravy, chairman of the House Family Caucus, is chairman of the Judiciary Special Laws subcommittee that pushed for successful passage of the bill on March 10.
The House Judiciary Committee action comes nearly three weeks after pro-life Senator Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, moved the Abortion Pill Reversal bill, S. 907, out of the Medical Affairs Committee onto the Senate Calendar. Senator Verdin who is chairman of the committee indicated that he would take the procedural move to advance the pro-life legislation after two senators walked out of the March 3, 2022, Medical Affairs Committee meeting to prevent action on the bill for lack of a quorum.
The law requires abortionists to inform women who take the “abortion pill” that there is a window of opportunity to reverse the effects of the lethal chemical if she seeks medical attention in time. The Abortion Pill Reversal bill is the number one priority on the legislative agenda of South Carolina Citizens for Life.
According to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control abortion data report, 67percent of the abortions occurring in South Carolina in 2020 were “chemical” abortions, also called “abortion pill” abortions.
The Senate Journal from Thursday, March 10, 2022, shows that Senator Verdin moved to poll S.907 out of his committee where it has been stalled since January 26, 2022. Under the Senate Rules, a bill that is stalled in a committee can be brought to the Senate Calendar by the majority of senators who are present and voting. Senator Verdin won his motion to recall S.907 by a vote of 10 to 7 with one member not voting. Oddly, Senator Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, is recorded as voting for and against the polling motion. Senator Senn, along with Senator Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, were the two senators who walked out of the Medical Affairs Committee on March 3, 2022.
The next hurdle for S. 907 is to be set for special order because one senator, pro-abortion Senator Mia McLeod, D-Richland, registered her objection to the bill. This puts S. 907 at the bottom of the contested calendar.
So far 14 states have passed a version of the Abortion Pill Reversal Act and it is currently in effect in 10 states. According to Carol Tobias, President of the National Right to Life Committee, at least 3,000 unborn babies’ lives have been saved when their mothers regretted her decision to abort and received medical help in time to save her child.
SIDEBAR
During the January 26, 2022 hearing, the Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee heard powerful and stunning testimony from a woman who took one of two pills intended to chemically abort her unborn child. After she changed her mind and received immediate medical assistance from her local pregnancy care center to reverse the lethal effects of the abortion pill, her baby boy was saved and is now 18-months old. Read her testimony here.
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
