Abortion ban reaches S. Carolina Senate despite GOP factions

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — While the results of this month's Kansas abortion vote have shaken some Republicans' appetite for additional restrictions, South Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a ban with limited exceptions.

By a 67-35 vote, the South Carolina House sent the Senate a bill banning abortion with exceptions only when the pregnancy risks the mother’s health or up to 12 weeks when it is the result of rape or incest.

But much of the landscape has changed since South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed the state’s temporarily blocked ban around six weeks at the presence of cardiac activity. Now, members of a state Republican Party divided on the issue’s details are no longer constrained by federal law.

Conservative lawmakers have been emboldened to pursue further restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But factions within the party were made plain Tuesday when Republican leadership called a nearly two-hour recess to convene members before the House ultimately passed an abortion ban with limited exceptions.

“We knew that we were all over the place,” Republican Rep. Davey Hiott said Tuesday evening of the caucus meeting. “If I told you it was pleasant in there I’d be lying to you.”

“We have no idea what the Senate will do,” Hiott, the House majority leader, added. “Our goal was to get a bill over there that we were comfortable with.”

Those shifting fault lines will determine whether the upper chamber follows suit or carves out a new proposal when lawmakers convene next week.

At a Monday news conference, Republican Sen. Richard Cash and Rep. Stewart Jones said they represented a “growing consensus” that would not commit to voting for a proposal that included exceptions outside of protections for a mother's life.

But that faction...