SC Personhood Amendment – Now S.719 Needs ‘Special Order’ Status, which requires 2/3 Senate vote

Christians for Personhood ( CP )
Columbia, South Carolina
April 14, 2016

SC Personhood Amendment – Reported to full SC Senate April 13, 2016;

Placed on full Senate Calendar April 14, 2016 – but S.719 is the 57th bill listed under ‘Statewide Second Reading Bills’.

Now S.719 Needs ‘Special Order’ Status, which requires 2/3 Senate vote

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The good news is that for the first time, S.719 is on the Senate Calendar.  The bad news is that:

1) S.719 is contested by two pro-‘abortion’ Senators ( Hutto , Bright Matthews ), and;

2) S.719 is the 57th bill listed on the Senate Calendar under ‘Statewide Second Reading Bills’.

The remedy for this challenging situation is to lobby the SC Senators to give S.719 what is known as ‘Special Order’, which moves it up to the front of the calendar.  It takes a 2/3 vote of Senators present and voting to be given Special Order.  If all 45 Senators are present ( 27 R, 18 D ), that means 30 votes are required.  If one or more Senators are absent or decide to abstain, that would lower the number of votes needed to attain the 2/3 threshold.

Since the there are 27 members of the Republican Caucus in the SC Senate, they have great influence over what bills are given Special Order when they vote as a consensus block.  There are only three ‘Special Order’ slots available on the calendar, however at least one is known to be open right now at the present time.  We want the 27 Senate Republicans to first agree within the Republican Senate Caucus, and then quickly vote on the Senate floor, to give S.719 SC Personhood Constitutional Amendment ‘Special Order’.

Next Tuesday,  April 19, at  11AM,  the  Republican Senate Caucus meets in Room 209, Gressette Senate Building, and will likely consider the matter of what bill to give the one known open ‘Special Order’ slot.  So we have between now and then to call and e-mail the 27 Senate Republicans urging them to agree to give S.719 ‘Special Order’ status when they meet April 19, and then to quickly actually move and vote to do so on the floor of the SC Senate.

There are in fact competing bills which various parties wish to obtain ‘Special Order’.

We need to bring a Christian witness of advocacy for giving S.719 SC Personhood Constitutional Amendment ‘Special Order’ between now and next Tuesday to:

1) The new Senate Majority ( Republican ) Leader, Senator Shane Massey ( R – Aiken, Edgefield, Lexington, McCormick & Saluda ) and;

2) The rest of the Republican Senators statewide in SC ( 27 Republicans total in SC Senate ).

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Contact information for all SC Senators is here: 
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/member.php?chamber=S

You may call BOTH the Republican Senators’ Gressette Building phone number and their home/business phone numbers, whatever numbers the Senator has listed in his/her contact information.

You may also e-mail them through the SC Legislature website.  E-mail pages are also available for each Senator individually here.

Please ask the Republican Senators words to this effect:

          “In the next Republican Senate Caucus meeting April 19, please advocate giving the open ‘Special Order’ slot to S.719 SC Personhood Constitutional Amendment , and then voting  ‘Special Order’ for S.719 quickly on the Senate floor.”

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Republican Members of the SC Senate
(Quick Find)

Thomas C. Alexander

Sean Bennett

Lee Bright

Kevin L. Bryant

Paul G. Campbell, Jr.

George E. “Chip” Campsen, III

Raymond E. Cleary, III

Thomas D. “Tom” Corbin

John E. Courson

Ronnie W. Cromer

Tom Davis

Michael L. Fair

Chauncey K. Gregory

Lawrence K. “Larry” Grooms

Robert W. Hayes, Jr.

Greg Hembree

Hugh K. Leatherman, Sr.

Larry A. Martin

Shane R. Martin

A. Shane Massey

Harvey S. Peeler, Jr.

Luke A. Rankin

Katrina Frye Shealy

Paul Thurmond

Ross Turner

Daniel B. “Danny” Verdin, III

Tom Young, Jr.