What losses of female GOP senators could mean for future abortion restrictions in SC

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade two years ago, more than a dozen red states have enacted bans on abortion from conception.

There has not been enough support within South Carolina’s legislature to impose as restrictive a measure as that, with the state instead implementing a still-limited ban from about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The issue of abortion didn’t come up in a substantial way this year at the State House, for the first time in a long time.

But the loss of the state’s only three female Republican senators, who played an integral role in blocking a ban from conception a few years ago, now has some expecting the issue to return to the fore next year.

“I don’t think anybody is under any illusion that they’re not going to try it,” Vicki Ringer with Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said. “The question will be, are there other Republican men who might say, ‘I was willing to sit back and let the women take the lead on this, but now that they’re gone, I’ve got to step up to the plate?’”

In 2022 and 2023, Republicans Katrina Shealy of Lexington County, Sandy Senn of Charleston County, and Penry Gustafson of Kershaw County joined with their Senate colleagues across the aisle, along with a few Republican men, to vote against a ban on abortion from conception.

The push failed in the Senate, though it did pass in the House of Representatives, and the Republican-dominated legislature eventually enacted a ban from about six weeks into a pregnancy last year, which the three female GOP senators all opposed.

In the last two weeks, all three of them lost their primary challenges to male opponents, likely leaving the upper chamber with zero GOP women.

“Whether the landscape has changed or not, I think we’ve got a lot of good things to accomplish, protecting children, and we are going to make sure human life protection, that bill — we were close a couple of years ago. We’re going to take another swing at that, and I believe children here in South Carolina deserve that protection,” Mitch Prosser, director of policy for the conservative Christian group Palmetto Family Council, said.

The question for next year is whether there is enough support when the General Assembly returns for a new legislative session in January to enact more restrictive measures — or even enough of an appetite, after multiple, prolonged abortion fights over the last few years in Columbia.

“We’ll get together with our caucus, we’ll lay out the agenda and see what happens, and then we’ll go from there,” House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, R – Pickens, said.

Republican leaders in both chambers said this week it’s too early to know.

“It is something that I’m sure we’ll have conversations about to see where we’re headed next year,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R – Edgefield, said.

Massey also noted the state’s current six-week ban has been effective in significantly reducing abortions in South Carolina since its implementation almost a year ago.

“We are no longer an abortion destination state because of the legislation that we passed, and thousands of lives are going to be saved because of it, so I feel good about where we are with that,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile the three men who won the Republican primaries against the three female senators all espouse support for policies that “protect the unborn,” or have previously voted for a ban from conception during their time in the state legislature.

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