South Carolina Legislators No Shows for Hearing on Pro-Life Abortion Bill

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 27, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

South Carolina Legislators No Shows for Hearing on Pro-Life Abortion Bill

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 27
, 2010

Columbia, SC (LifeNews.com) — Members of a South Carolina legislative panel failed to show up for a planned hearing on a bill for a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion. The hearing was a joint one featuring both House and Senate members who were supposed to meet to work out the differences in bills from each chamber.

But AP indicates just one House member showed up, much to the chagrin of Sen. Kevin Bryant, who said the bill is too important for such games.

Rep. Greg Delleney authored the bill and he told AP that senators are either being disingenuous or not communicating with legislative staff about the meeting place and time. He said the conference committee would need to be rescheduled.

The House wants the 24-hour waiting period so women have a greater chance of considering abortion alternatives, but the Senate doesn’t agree.

In March, the state Senate passed what South Carolina Citizens for Life called troubling amendment to the waiting period bill. The House refused to agree with the Senate, so the bill went to the conference committee.

"On a voice vote, the Senate agreed to a very disturbing amendment by militant pro-abortion Senator Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, to waive a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion if the unborn child would not survive until birth," SCCL’s Holly Gatling said last month.

Pro-life Senator Phil Shoopman, R-Greenville, opposed the Hutto amendment telling his colleagues he and his wife had been misinformed that their now six-year-old child had died in the womb.

Eight Republican senators joined Senator Shoopman in his opposition to the Hutto amendment.

They made the following statement for the Senate Journal:

“We voted against Senator Hutto’s amendment on [the 24-hour waiting period]. We were swayed in large part by the experiences of Senator Shoopman and his wife and by the fact that we believe that theirs was not an isolated occurrence. Those experiences reaffirm our belief that neither technology nor medical insight has progressed to the level where a single ultrasound could always determine whether an intrauterine natural death was ‘inevitable.’ We believe that applying the 24-hour waiting period under such circumstances is an appropriate level of protection for the unborn child.

“Our opposition is not a knee-jerk reaction," the senators said, "but a studied response to what is, by any measure, an almost unbearable set of circumstances. If that is misconstrued by some as lacking compassion, that is a criticism we are willing to bear.”

Related web sites:
South Carolina Citizens for Life – https://www.sclife.org

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