COLUMBIA, S.C. _ After Republican lawmakers fast-tracked an abortion bill that would ban most abortions after six weeks, a Republican state legislative leader said Thursday he doesn't believe there is enough support to pass it into law.
"We don't have the votes," Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said while appearing on a panel for South Carolina reporters.
Lawmakers return to Columbia next week to begin work on the second session in the two-year General Assembly. An abortion ban is among the top priorities of some lawmakers, though, as Massey noted, it will face a steep climb in the Senate, where Democrats have threatened a filibuster if the bill comes up for debate.
In April, the South Carolina House passed the so-called "fetal heartbeat" abortion bill that would outlaw most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women realize they're pregnant.
The House-passed bill included exceptions for victims of rape or incest. However, when the bill was sent to a Senate subcommittee in October, members stripped out protections for victims of rape or incest. Members of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee later added them back in, but added the caveat that women would be required to file a police report alleging the crime against them.
In November, that "heartbeat bill" was pushed to the Senate floor, passing out of committee with a vote along party lines.
The Senate has 46 members. For Republicans to shut down a Democrat filibuster, they would need 26 votes. Massey said he believes they currently have 24.
The bill is similar to many other controversial strict abortion laws passed by other states last year in an attempt to strike at Roe v. Wade, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that guarantees the right to an abortion. Those state-passed laws have been overturned or caught up in court.
Massey compared the current fight to pass an abortion bill to a similar effort in 2018, when Republicans failed to pass an outright abortion ban after Democrats stalled the vote. Republicans ultimately gave up on the bill.
"We're in a worse position here numbers-wise than we were two years ago," Massey said.
Massey said Republicans were in a much better position in 2018, with fewer strong opponents like Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootilan and a Republican lieutenant governor presiding over the chamber.
"Y'all saw that movie two years ago," Massey told reporters and fellow legislators Thursday. "I was a player in that movie. I did not like that. I don't want to go through that again."
