Pro-Abortion Leftists Are Mad Texas’ Heartbeat Law Saved Thousands Of Nonwhite Babies

A report’s underlying conclusion was subtle and horrific: that the expansion of minority populations is a problem in need of a solution.

South Carolina lawmakers advance abortion ban



South Carolina lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that would criminalize abortion procedures in the state, with an exception for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.

The state House Judiciary Committee voted 13-7 along party lines to move the South Carolina Human Life Protection Act out of committee, clearing the way for an eventual vote on the House floor, where Republicans hold the majority. All yes votes were from Republicans, and all no votes from Democrats. Three GOP committee members who did not attend the hearing also did not vote.

The bill bans abortions in all cases except certain medical emergencies that threaten the life of the mother. Republican lawmakers argued that the bill was written so that women would not lose access to health care, but would not be able to seek an elective abortions for unwanted children. It also does not criminalize women who have had abortions.

“The No. 1 thing that this bill does is to end the practice of abortion being used as birth control in our state,” state Rep. John McCravy (R) said in remarks at Tuesday's hearing.

“The No. 1 thing the bill does not do is to endanger the healthcare of women in any way,” he added. “In fact, this was the No. 1 misconception we found repeated in the public hearing, that somehow women's healthcare could be endangered by this proposed law. Nothing, and absolutely nothing could be further from the truth.”

McCravy said the bill does not restrict access to contraception, emergency contraception, or IVF. He emphasized that in order to be absolutely transparent, lawmakers included a list of medical conditions the bill does not criminalize, which was compiled in consultation with doctors and health care providers and is not exhaustive. Those conditions include ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, severe preeclampsia, and more.

"It needs to be noted that some of these conditions do not involve a live, inter in-utero pre-born child, and therefore, really, the resulting procedures are not even considered abortion in this law," McCravy explained.

Current South Carolina law makes abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. Abortion rights advocates oppose this restriction, arguing many women do not even know they are pregnant by this time.

Pro-life Republican lawmakers in South Carolina, as in other states, have sought to expand the abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states were permitted to regulate abortion in its landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Democrats have opposed the bill, framing it as an attack on women's rights and interference with their health care.

“Our ad hoc committee held a hearing where the only invited expert was a lawyer for National Right to Life. She likened abortion to organized crime and recommended that doctors face racketeering-style prosecution usually reserved for gang members, drug lords and criminal kingpins,” Rep. Spencer Wetmore (D) said in prepared remarks at an earlier subcommittee hearing, according to the State. “Republicans are passing a bill that will ban abortion, throw doctors in jail and kill women.”

During Tuesday's hearing, Rep. Justin Bamberg (D) accused Republicans of legislating conservative Christian beliefs about life beginning at conception and said, "[I]t is improper for religious believes to spill over into the political context."

"This legislation is forcing it on people, it's the very definition of anti-Christian, in my personal opinion, based on my personal Christian beliefs and understanding," he added.

Other Democrats complained that anti-abortion lawmakers claim they value life in the womb, but do little to support government programs that help poor and needy people after they've been born.

Answering these accusations, Rep. Sylleste Davis (R) said the legislature must continue to support mothers and babies in South Carolina after abortion is criminalized.

“I believe that there’s plenty more that we need to do," Davis said. "I believe that we need appropriate some additional funds to crisis pregnancy centers. I think we need to put emphasis and support with the prenatal care and with new mothers, as well. I believe that education is important. I believe that easy access to contraception is important. I believe that we must find a way to streamline adoption.”

McCravy said the state House will vote on the abortion ban in about two weeks. Then it will head to the state Senate, where Republicans also hold a majority, but many lawmakers support adding rape and incest exceptions to the bill.

Democratic lawmaker warns of 'revolution' if Roe v. Wade is overturned



Days before a highly controversial abortion case will be argued before the Supreme Court, a Democratic senator warned that a "revolution" will take place if the court overturns existing precedent on abortion.

Speaking at a virtual press conference with the rest of the New Hampshire congressional delegation Monday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said that a decision overturning Roe v. Wade would both turn back the clock on women's rights and outrage the American people.

"I hope the Supreme Court is listening to the people of the United States because – to go back to Adam Sexton’s question – I think if you want to see a revolution go ahead, outlaw Roe v. Wade and see what the response is of the public, particularly young people," Shaheen said, referring to WMUR-TV reporter Adam Sexton.

"I think that will not be acceptable to young women or young men," she added.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which challenges a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions. The law has been blocked by lower courts on the grounds that it unconstitutionally restricts a woman's right to an abortion. Court precedent establishes that states cannot restrict abortion before a fetus is able to survive outside the womb, which happens at around 22 weeks of pregnancy.

The Mississippi law was designed to directly challenge court precedent on abortion, with the hope that a majority of Republican-appointed justices will overturn Roe v. Wade.

In a statement released before the press conference, Shaheen painted a dire picture of what the country would look like without Roe's precedent.

“I’ve lived the consequences of the pre-Roe era – I had friends in college who were forced to seek dangerous back alley abortions because women across the country were denied access to critical family planning services. We cannot allow Republican lawmakers to turn back the clock on women’s reproductive health and rights, which is precisely what the Mississippi case seeks to do. It is time to sound the alarm,” Shaheen said. “Roe v. Wade isn’t just a decision that impacts women, their health and their financial security – it also impacts generations of families."

Her colleague Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) added that Mississippi's law is "one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country and it would take us back to almost 50 years ago."

On the other side of the issue, many pro-life legal scholars and other experts commenting on the upcoming case argued Roe and the subsequent landmark decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey should be overturned on legal, scientific, and moral grounds.

“As legal experts on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged, the Court’s abortion jurisprudence is untethered from the text, history, and tradition of the Constitution. It has imposed on the nation, for several decades now, an extreme, incoherent, anti-democratic regime pursuant to constantly shifting rules, standards, and rationales," law professors Mary Ann Glendon and O. Carter Snead, from Harvard Law School and Notre Dame Law School respectively, argued.

"What’s more, it elevates a particular vision of human identity and flourishing that is both constitutionally unjustified and morally pernicious in that it systematically prevents the elected branches of government from adopting measures that address the needs of the vulnerable mothers, children, and families involved," they wrote for National Affairs.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Grazie Pozo Christie, a diagnostic radiologist and policy adviser for the Catholic Association, explained that the science supports the Mississippi's 15-week statute.

“Perfectly apparent now, to the justices sitting on today’s court as well as the public, are the liveliness and humanity of babies at 15 weeks of gestation — the age at which Mississippi proposes to protect them from elective termination. Nestled within their mothers, these fetuses on average are 6.4 inches long and weigh 4.1 ounces," Christie wrote. "They have the proportions of a newborn — seemingly all head and rounded belly. The major organs are formed and functioning, and although the child receives nutrients and oxygen through the mother’s umbilical cord, the fetal digestive, urinary and respiratory systems are practicing for life outside the womb. The sex of the child is easy to discern by this point. The baby swallows and even breathes, filling the lungs with amniotic fluid and expelling it. The heart is fully formed, its four chambers working hard, with the delicate valves opening and closing.”

While the case will be heard on Dec. 1, a ruling from the court is not expected until next summer.