Last week was the 16th week of the 2023 legislative session. There are 2 legislative weeks remaining before the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn on May 11, 2023. Here are the highlights from last week’ Senate action:
PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING COMPACT – The Senate passed S. 610 2023-2024 Bill 610: Professional Counseling Compact, legislation that would allow South Carolina to enter a multi-state compact for license reciprocity for professional counselors. The bill will now go to the House of Representatives.
LIFE AND ABORTION – The Senate spent most of the week debating H. 3774 , 2023-2024 Bill 3774: Abortion Ban with Exceptions, the Human Life Protection Act. The bill would prohibit abortions with exceptions for the life/health of the mother, rape, incest, and fatal fetal anomalies. Despite multiple attempts, the Senate did not have the votes to break a filibuster, so the bill failed.
Earlier this year, the Senate passed legislation that would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected (usually around 6 weeks after the woman becomes pregnant) with exceptions for the life/health of the mother, rape, incest, and fatal fetal anomalies. The House has refused to take up that bill, refusing to back away from what it believes is a stronger bill for life. I am hopeful, though, that the House will debate and pass that bill now that the Senate attempted the House version. As I mentioned in last week’s update, South Carolina’s current law allows abortions, without restriction, for up to 22 weeks or about 5 ½ months. That law is the most lenient in the Southeast, and, consequently, South Carolina has become an abortion destination state. Our
abortion numbers have doubled from 2021, and those numbers will almost certainly continue to increase with Florida recently enacting a fetal heartbeat law. If the House does not pass the fetal Heartbeat legislation, those abortion numbers will continue to rise.