The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would ban most abortions about six weeks into pregnancy before most people know they’re pregnant and sent it to the governor, who promised to sign it.

The proposal reinstates a ban South Carolina put in place when the U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled Roe v. Wade, a ban that, once enacted, was overturned by the state’s Supreme Court on the grounds that it violated the state constitution’s right to privacy.

Republicans are seeking an answer to that ruling because it left abortion legal at 22 weeks of pregnancy and saw abortions in South Carolina spike as most other Southern states enacted stricter laws.

South Carolina is one of the region’s last bastions for those seeking legal abortion, but that status is likely to end soon.

Most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned in North Carolina starting July 1 after state-controlled legislatures successfully overrode Democratic governors’ veto last week. Abortion is banned or severely restricted in much of the South, including a ban during pregnancy in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. In Georgia it is only allowed in the first six weeks.

The South Carolina bill includes exceptions for fatal fetal abnormalities, patient life and health, and rape or incest up to 12 weeks. Doctors face felonies with two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

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Republican Governor Henry McMaster has said he would sign the bill soon.

Vicki Ringer, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said after Tuesday’s vote that her organization would file a request for a temporary restraining order once the governor signs the measure into law. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey told reporters he was confident the law would be enforced.

The Republican-led Senate chance to pass the bill came after the South Carolina House rejected a proposal to ban abortion almost entirely at conception. Senators had failed to get the vote for that proposal after three attempts.

The vote also came after the three Senate Republican women urged other members of their party to pass a 12-week abortion ban as they fought additional restrictions a month after helping filibusters with a almost total ban. They, along with all Democrats, voted against the bill.

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The women of the Senate, known as the Sister Senators, the three Republicans, a Democrat and an Independent who are the only women in the 46-member chamber, entered the state House together on Tuesday to the cheers of dozens of abortion rights supporters who gathered on the main meeting floor. All five tightened buttons with the text Choose more women.

In sizzling speeches, the three Republican women said the 12-week proposal didn’t give women enough time to make a decision, and criticized changes like one requiring child support from conception as ridiculous. Republican Senator Katrina Shealy supported a 12-week ban as a genuine compromise.

Shealy and Republican Senator Penry Gustafson hit back at claims that because of their views they are not true Christians.

We in the South Carolina Legislature are not God. We don’t know what’s going on in someone else’s life. We have no right to make decisions for anyone else, Shealy said.

As the Supreme Court weighs abortion, Christians are challenging what it means to be “pro-life.”

Massey outlined new rules and definitions inserted by the Republican-dominated

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House delayed in proceedings last week by hundreds of Democrats’ amendments over two days. The Republicans in the House had scrapped part of the measure that allowed minors to petition the court for an abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Tuesday marked the fourth time the chamber has taken over abortion since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The 15 Senate Democrats, united against both abortion bans, have largely allowed the Republican majority to debate the issue among themselves. Opponents argue that South Carolina’s high maternal mortality rates with even worse outcomes among black patients would get worse under the new restrictions.

Abortion currently remains legal through 22 weeks in South Carolina, although other regulations largely block access after the first trimester at the states’ three clinics. But the law has remained unchanged amid a Republican disagreement over how far to restrict access, which has only recently moved toward resolution.

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Republican leaders have taken note of preliminary data from the state’s health department showing an increase in abortions in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned a similar 2021 law as a violation of the state constitution’s right to privacy in a 3-2 decision in January. But many Republicans believe the latest version would hold up after changes to the language of the bill and the composition of the courts.

The move comes a week after Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly decided to implement a 12-week abortion ban by overriding the Democratic governors’ veto, moving Virginia closer to becoming the last state in the region with relatively easy access.

___James Pollard is a member of the Corps of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

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