Christians for Personhood ( CP )
Columbia, South Carolina
May 7, 2018
SC Senate ‘Abortion’ Bills battle, May 1 – 4, 2018 – Report #1A:
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[ Report sent previously by text ]
SC Senate ‘Abortion’ Bills battle, May 1 – 4 – Report #1A:
Personhood Bill S217 vs Hutto “Hyde-Amdt”-type fake “pro-life” replacement amdt to H3548 vs SCCL’s euthanasia Dismemberment Bill H3548
/// As previously reported, after four unsuccessful Cloture votes during 10 hrs or so of Dem’s filibuster which began about 2:20pm Thurs May 3, sometime before 1am Fri May 4 the Repub super-majority Senate voted 24 Y – 21 N to kill / Recommit back to Med Aff Comm, the Hutto “Hyde-Amdt”-type fake “pro-life” replacement amdt language which had supplanted the euthanasia Dismemberment Bill language, making H3548 now a much different bill, though not a Personhood or true “pro-life” bill either; this Hutto/Hyde fake “pro-life” bill did NOT establish Personhood, and had several child-murder “exceptions” for rape, incest, life and serious health risk of mother
/// Cloture vote #4 (25 Y – 20 N) was just ONE vote short of 26 votes needed, and RINO’s Leatherman and Rankin had again joined the 18 Dem’s to block cloture, AS THEY BOTH HAD DONE ON THREE PREVIOUS CLOTURE VOTES
/// After Cloture vote #4 failed, then Hutto moved to kill / Recommit Hutto / Hyde version of H3548 back to Med Aff Comm, which passed, 24 Y – 21 N. Joining 18 Dem’s to Recommit H3548 were: Campsen, Gregory, Leatherman, Massey, Rankin, Shealy
/// RANKIN the DISSEMBLER: “SC Democrats kill Senate GOP’s abortion ban with days-long (sic – hrs) filibuster”
http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article210444234.html – “State Sen. Luke Rankin of Horry, said he voted to end debate on the bill after seeing that Malloy and other senators weren’t going to leave. With just three legislative days left, he noted, a prolonged filibuster would have prevented other important bills, such as those addressing South Carolina’s nuclear fiasco, from passing.”
/// RANKIN did NOT vote to end debate in FOUR Cloture votes ! HE AND LEATHERMAN WERE ONLY TWO REPUB’S (RINO’s) WHO VOTED TO KEEP DEM FILIBUSTER GOING ALL 4 CLOTURE VOTES !!
[ End ]
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CP Note: These were the four Cloture votes ( the lesser of 26 votes, or 3/5 of those present and voting, needed for cloture):
Cloture #1: 23 Y – 22 N [ Republican Senators Campbell, Leatherman, Rankin, and Senn joined 18 Democrats to vote No ]
Cloture #2: 24 Y – 21 N [ Republican Senators Leatherman, Rankin, and Senn joined 18 Democrats to vote No ]
Cloture #3: 24 Y – 21 N [ Republican Senators Leatherman, Rankin, and Senn joined 18 Democrats to vote No ]
Cloture #4: 25 Y – 20 N [ Republican Senators Leatherman and Rankin joined 18 Democrats to vote No ]
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Additional information:
RANKIN the DISSEMBLER:
The State ( Columbia, SC )
‘SC Democrats kill Senate GOP’s abortion ban with days-long [ sic – hours-long ] filibuster’
http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article210444234.html
[ excerpt ]
“State Sen. Luke Rankin of Horry, said he voted to end debate on the bill after seeing that Malloy and other senators weren’t going to leave. With just three legislative days left, he noted, a prolonged filibuster would have prevented other important bills, such as those addressing South Carolina’s nuclear fiasco, from passing.”
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CP Note: Senator Luke Rankin (R-Horry) did NOT vote to end the Democrat filibuster on any of the FOUR Cloture votes taken between about 2:20 pm Thursday, May 3 when the Democrat filibuster started with pro-“abortion” Democrat Senator Marlon Kimpson (D-Charleston) at the podium, and the ensuing approximate 10 hours before the H3548 bill was Recommitted ( killed ) back to the Senate Medical Affairs Committee.
This can be seen in the SC Senate Journal for May 3, 2018:
Senate Journal (5/3/18)
http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess122_2017-2018/sj18/20180503.htm
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The State ( Columbia, SC )
‘How outnumbered Democrats defeated a GOP-backed bill to ban nearly all SC abortions’
http://www.thestate.com/latest-news/article210453304.html#storylink=latest_side
May 04, 2018
[ excerpts, emphasis added ]
Facing a Democratic filibuster with no end in sight, the Republican-controlled Senate at 1 a.m. Friday voted 24-21 to kill the proposed abortion ban, which made exceptions only for cases of rape, incest or serious medical emergencies.
Banning abortion has been a priority of Republican candidates for governor and the state GOP during this election season. The proposal would have banned some 97 percent of the roughly 5,700 abortions performed in South Carolina each year.
The Friday collapse was a reversal from the 28-10 Senate vote late Wednesday night to pass the ban. But Democrats vowed to filibuster the third and final Senate vote. Senate Republicans gave in early Friday morning after four unsuccessful attempts to sit the Democrats down.
Ending the filibuster would have required 26 votes, but Republicans could get only 25 by 1 a.m. Friday.
The Senate has 18 Democrats.
“With three (legislative) days remaining and other issues affecting a lot of South Carolinians that we have to address and no realistic opportunity of success in sight, we had to move on,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, an Edgefield Republican who pushed to end the Democratic filibuster and ultimately voted to stop the debate.
continued…
The proposal this year would have been the most restrictive ban of them all. That’s because state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, essentially dared Senate Republicans on Wednesday night to drop their proposed ban on rare “dismemberment” abortions and instead vote for an outright ban on almost all abortions in the Palmetto State.
The Republicans liked his suggestion, voting 24-1 to adopt it just before adjourning for the night. The vote amplified the abortion debate, offering S.C. Republicans a chance to pass a law that could spark a court challenge to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming a woman’s right to an abortion.
continued…
“It was going to be enjoined immediately and challenged in court,” Hutto said. “There was certainly a risk that it was going to pass, I understood that. But a risk that it was going to substantially change the law in South Carolina? Not unless Roe v. Wade is overturned, which I don’t think is going to happen.”
continued…
All 45 eligible senators were present for the final vote at 1 a.m. Friday. If the filibuster had continued into next week, it could have killed a number of other bills that still must pass the Senate. That includes a handful of proposals addressing South Carolina’s $9 billion nuclear fiasco.
“We didn’t have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader Massey said. “We weren’t going to get the votes no matter when it was.”
A few Senate Republicans repeatedly voted against ending the Democratic filibuster, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin, R-Horry, and Senate President Pro Tempore Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence. Both are former Democrats.
State Sen. Katrina Shealy, a vocal abortion opponent who has caught flak for voting along with several other Republicans to end the debate, said carrying on the debate into Friday was pointless.
“Everybody was willing to come back and debate the bill,” the Lexington Republican said. “But it was at a point where the same things were being said over and over again. We just didn’t have the votes. Why keep beating the issue over and over when you don’t have the votes?”
continued…
Gov. Henry McMaster’s office Friday said the Richland Republican was keeping an eye on the debate.
“This underscores the need to elect conservative Republicans that are willing to fight for the unborn, against the Democrats funded by the Planned Parenthood machine,” McMaster said Friday on Facebook. “The people of South Carolina deserve better than this, which is why I ordered that NO state funds go to Planned Parenthood. I promise that I will continue to fight until the lives of every person young and old, born and unborn are protected in our great state.
continued…
Massey said he expects the Senate’s strongest abortion opponents to be back next year with new proposals. But, he said, Senate Republicans should make sure they have the votes to win before setting up a debate on such a controversial issue.
“There might be a little more caution about jumping into something without having an exit strategy,” he said.
