A full abortion ban bill with no exceptions for rape/incest has advanced to the state senate:
Abortion ban sent to full SC Senate after committee strikes exceptions for rape, incest
A bill banning nearly all abortions in South Carolina has advanced in the Senate with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
www.postandcourier.com
The full Senate will take up the measure Sept. 7, a day after a 9-8 vote by the Medical Affairs Committee.
GOP Sens. Tom Davis of Beaufort and Sandy Senn of Charleston joined Democrats in voting against a ban that allows an abortion only to save the mother's life or prevent a serious, lifelong health problem. The committee struck exemptions for crime victims — which were inserted by the House last week — with a vote that divided Republicans only. Democrats declined to participate in what ultimately passed 7-3.
Sen. Richard Cash, who proposed removing the exemptions, said he recognizes that rape is violent and traumatizing, but said the innocent child conceived by the crime should not be killed.
"There is someone who deserves to be punished and that's the rapist, but we're transferring the penalty and putting it on the baby," the Anderson County Republican said. "There is someone being put to death, but it's not even the rapist, it's the baby."