Most S.C. Gubernatorial Candidates Oppose Harsher Abortion Bill

Seanna Adcox/S.C. Daily Gazette

Six Republicans running to be South Carolina’s next governor touted their anti-abortion credentials on the debate stage Tuesday but differed on whether they’d support or veto an all-out ban without exceptions.

The debate at the College of Charleston came hours after a Senate committee advanced a bill banning abortions from the onset of a pregnancy, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or for a diagnosed fatal fetal anomaly. Women could be sent to prison for up to two years and fined $1,000 for getting an abortion or possessing the drugs to cause one.

A question on whether they agreed with that bill or think the state’s existing six-week ban goes far enough produced the biggest differences of the night in candidates’ answers.

Only one Republican said he’d sign the bill into law: U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.

Two said they would veto it: Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace essentially said she supports the existing law. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell said he doesn’t support putting women in jail. And Isle of Palms businessman Rom Reddy advocated putting it on the ballot for voters to decide.

A pledge to sign

Norman, of Rock Hill, started his response by noting he has 17 grandchildren.

“It’s an emotional issue,” he said, adding the “mental illness part of this is what really needs to be addressed.” Without elaborating on what that meant, he continued: “It’s harsh to put someone in prison — that 15-year-old who’s aborted a baby or attempted to. That said, if it gets to my desk, I would sign it. I think that would be the right step.”

Norman happened to be the last on stage to answer that question.

Senate votes

He followed Kimbrell, of Spartanburg County, who was among the eight senators who voted Tuesday morning to send the all-out ban to the Senate floor. Yet, he said, he’ll “never support the level of penalties included in that bill” in a floor debate.

“I personally believe life begins at conception. At the same time, as a Christian, I believe there are two sides of the Christian message: justice and mercy. You can’t focus so much on justice, you’re willing to put a woman who’s scare in jail,” he said, echoing comments he made last week in a subcommittee meeting before voting to advance the bill to the full committee.

Kimbrell, first elected to the Senate in 2020, noted he was a co-sponsor of the six-week ban — both of them.

The first so-called “fetal heartbeat” law, passed in 2021, took effect for about six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, before a legal challenge filed in state court blocked it. It was thrown out in January 2023 as violating the state constitution. The second six-week ban, passed months later, was upheld by South Carolina’s high court.

However, Kimbrell said, “I’ll never support a bill that puts a woman who’s scared in jail. I think the conversation goes against us at that point.”

After the debate, he said his two “yes” votes on the bill in the last two weeks were to allow debate and move it along. But he can’t support it as is on the floor.

It’s unlikely to get floor debate. Sen. Tom Davis, the lone Republican to vote “no” in committee, is pledging to block it. The bill will likely die when the session ends next month.

But another attempt next year is a near-certainty.

Promised vetoes

“If a bill like that showed up on my desk, I’d veto it,” Evette said, after stressing that she’s proud to be endorsed by the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Cash’s bill “has gone too far,” she said. “I’m very happy with the ‘heartbeat’ bill.”

Wilson, first elected attorney general in 2010, called himself “unapologetically pro-life” — something he’s demonstrated repeatedly, he said, by defending South Carolina’s various anti-abortion laws in state and federal courts.

However, he said, “we must have compassion for the unborn and the mother. We must build consensus for everyone moving forward and apply common sense, which is why I would veto that bill.” As his time ran out, he quickly added that he also wants to see reforms in adoptions and foster care.

Mace’s 2019 floor speech

Mace, first elected to Congress in 2000, pointed to her own votes on the six-week ban while she was still in the state House.

In 2019, Mace’s recounting on the House floor of being raped at 16 resulted in her then-colleagues approving exceptions for pregnancies due to rape or incest. While an abortion foe, she said during an impassioned speech at the lectern, she couldn’t support the bill without exceptions for victims of such heinous crimes.

That was the first time she’d told her story publicly, and the six-week ban passed the House. Mace was among Republicans voting “yes.” But that bill never got a vote on the Senate floor after Cash succeeded in striking the exceptions during that chamber’s committee process.

“I am pro-life with exceptions for rape and incest and life of the mother,” Mace said on stage Tuesday. “That would be my position as governor.”

‘Tired of this’

Reddy, a first-time candidate for elected office, called himself “pro-life,” noted he has two “healthy, beautiful” grandchildren, then went an entirely different direction from his opponents.

“Aren’t we tired of this discussion?” he asked. “It takes up time every single year.”

In overturning a nearly half-century precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling returned the legality of abortions to the states to decide.

“The Supreme Court did not say the loudest voice in the ruling class prevails. They said it’s up to the people in the state, so let’s put it to a referendum,” he said, “and put this to bed once and for all.”

During floor debate on the six-week ban, GOP legislators repeatedly refused proposals to put the issue on the ballot as a constitutional referendum.

Tuesday’s debate was the second in a series organized by the state Republican Party. But at the first debate April 1 at the Newberry Opera House, only four candidates participated.

A seventh Republican who entered the race on the last day of candidate filing was not invited to participate. As of Tuesday, no campaign disclosures for Jacqueline Hicks DuBose of Hartsville could be found on the state Ethics Commission website.

A third GOP gubernatorial debate is set for May 26 at Wofford College.