COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - One of the South Carolina Legislature’s most ardent abortion foes is, ironically, blocking passage of a bill he and other abortion opponents have sought for years and is ripping into his fellow anti-abortion activists.
Sen. Lee Bright, R-Roebuck, on Thursday began filibustering a bill that would ban abortion past 19 weeks because he opposes a compromise that would provide exceptions.
In a strange twist, Bright exasperated fellow abortion foes both within the Senate and in the lobby - whom he criticized as conceding defeat - as they tried unsuccessfully several times to force him from the podium. Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Charleston, said the bill is likely dead for the year.
“The very senator who likes to proclaim himself as the most pro-life member of this body” has just ensured the bill’s defeat, Grooms said. “After three years, we came close.”
As approved by the House in February, the measure gave exceptions only to save the mother’s life or prevent her from severe injury.
Sen. Brad Hutto, who’s blocked the bill for years, said he was willing to let it pass if it also gave exceptions in cases of rape, incest and severe fetal anomalies in which the child likely wouldn’t live after birth without the help of machines
Hutto, D-Orangeburg, noted such anomalies are detected about the 20th week.
The bill only affects abortions performed in hospitals. State law already bars the state’s three abortion clinics from performing the procedure past 13 weeks.
Fewer than 30 abortions yearly are performed at 20 weeks gestation or beyond. Most involve white, married women who are at least 25 years old, according to data since 1990 provided Thursday by the state’s public health agency. It does not collect data on reasons for such abortions.
Opponents of the measure have long argued they involve wanted pregnancies that go horribly wrong and politicians should play no role in that decision.
“These are women who want to be mothers,” Hutto said. “They’ve carried the child for five months. They’re confronted with horrible medical news from their doctor, and they have to make a decision.”
The compromise came as many senators are trying to move past abortion to take up a bill that would raise about $800 million annually for road and bridge construction. Both lawmakers and business leaders have said roadwork funding should be the Legislature’s top priority.
Senators initially rejected Hutto’s compromise, in the works for weeks. But when he renewed his opposition and pledged to tie up the rest of the session, many abortion foes - including Grooms - switched course and signed on to Hutto’s amendment.
“I’m not comfortable with the exceptions, but if we can’t save them all, let’s save who we can,” Grooms told his colleagues. “If anyone filibusters this bill, it will be at the peril of about 20 children.”
It seemed poised to pass.
That’s when Bright took the podium, saying he won’t accept exceptions for victims of rape and incest, and he’s willing to spend the last three weeks of the session blocking the bill. He compared abortion to slavery as the “horror of our time” and called his filibuster a trial for “Baby Doe.”
“That unborn child has done nothing wrong other than have a father who’s a criminal,” he said, insisting that the amended bill “will get us a postcard from Citizens for Life; it will get us a friendly email,” but it won’t save lives.
Holly Gatling, director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said Bright is wrong and acting against what he preaches.
“If you don’t have the facts, you pound the table,” she said. “He seems to be more interested in winning the battle and losing the war.”
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