“Yes, I’m pro-life,” Shealy said. “I am also in favor of the life of the mother, the life she has with her children who have already been born. I care about kids being forced into adulthood, which was created by a legislature full of men, so they can take a victory lap and feel good about it.” “It disgusts me,” he added. South Carolina senators are considering a near-total ban on abortion starting at fertilization. It would be an even tighter restriction than the one passed last year that came into effect at the end of June, which bans abortion at about six weeks, when doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat. The state Supreme Court voted last month to temporarily block the ban. South Carolina House Approves Abortion Ban Except for Rape and Incest Shealy is one of three Republican women in the Senate. All of them said that, without exceptions for rape and incest, they would not support their colleagues’ bill. The Senate adjourned Wednesday night without a vote, but is scheduled to reconvene Thursday morning. If the bill passes the Senate, it will go back to the House, which last week approved a version that included exemptions for rape and incest up to the 12th week of pregnancy. Shealy isn’t the only South Carolina Republican who usually backs anti-abortion measures to express doubts about tougher abortion proposals. On Aug. 16, state Rep. Neal Collins said he regretted voting last year to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat was detected. About two weeks after the six-week ban went into effect, Collins said, a doctor called to tell him about a 19-year-old woman who had recently arrived at the emergency room 15 weeks pregnant. Her water broke, the fetus was non-viable and the standard of care called for an abortion. But since there was a heartbeat, the hospital’s lawyers told the doctors they couldn’t approve one. They discharged the woman, leaving her with more than a 50 percent chance of losing her uterus and a 10 percent chance of developing a life-threatening infection. “That weighs on me,” Collins said. “I voted for this bill. These affect people.” South Carolina Supreme Court temporarily blocks 6-week abortion ban Shealy also voted to ban abortion after six weeks. In fact, she co-sponsored the bill, telling colleagues during a debate last year that the legislation “protects the life of the unborn in a heartbeat.” On Wednesday – about a year and a half later – she found herself denouncing the new anti-abortion legislation and berating her male colleagues who tried to pass it. In this way, he told them that women are smart enough to run households and businesses, take care of children and elderly parents. “The one thing we’re not smart enough to do is take care of our bodies. We need men in government, not health professionals, to do that,” he said sarcastically, adding, “The South Carolina Legislature — we know better.” State Sen. Penry Gustafson echoed Seeley from the floor a few minutes later. The Republican said she was anti-abortion and wished no one had sex before marriage and that pregnancies were always wanted. But, Gustafson added, he lives in “Realville,” where he recognizes that’s not reality. He also challenged fellow Republicans to consider mothers’ rights. Gustafson called the bill “pious legislation.” “This bill does not recognize or even recognize any right other than the right of the baby,” Gustafson said. “So we women don’t have any autonomy over our bodies? Are we just baby machines?’ He then asked other senators to weigh in on potential health emergencies. What if a woman carries a dead fetus? What if someone has a potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy? What if an 11-year-old girl rushes and gets soaked? “Well, that’s pretty bad, under this bill,” Gustafson said. Sandy Senn, the third Republican woman in the Senate and the only one to vote against the six-week ban passed last year, mocked her male colleagues for calling a special session to address the ban and suggesting that “women and families need the your guidance because you will all know better than them.’ “You can’t legislate morality, you can’t tell people who to sleep with, you can’t tell people who to marry and you can’t tell women what to do with their bodies, try as you might.” Sen warned them that passing the ban could have consequences in the November election. “This issue is huge,” she said, adding, “You don’t think women will individually vote for something like this?”
