SPEAKING FREELY ON SENATE BILL 323

Three white male members of the South Carolina Senate have settled on a plan to make the state number one in the nation in something: the mistreatment of women.

The Taliban Three are Richard Cash (65, from Anderson), Rex Rice (68, from Pickens) and Billy Garrett (69, from Greenwood). None has any medical education. Two are businessmen; one is a lawyer. It's the latest Republican effort to divert the attention of the electorate from the many failings of the supermajority party in governing this state.

They have fast-tracked S. 323 for the January legislative session and have already been holding sham hearings on the bill.

S. 323 strictly forbids a pregnant woman in South Carolina from ending a pregnancy for any reason whatsoever other than to save her own life. It also presents serious legal hazards to anyone who lives with her, interacts with her, is related to her, treats her medically, or communicates with her online or over the phone. If they discuss abortion with her, or aid in obtaining one, they are in big trouble.

The bill throws out the current fetal heartbeat standard and defines life as beginning at conception. Abortion is murder. Rape and incest are no longer exceptions that permit a legal abortion. Any doctor performing an abortion would have to document in excruciating detail why it was necessary to save the woman's life. If that documentation is challenged, it could lead to criminal prosecution of the doctor and the loss of a medical license.

It would be unlawful to market or possess any drug, such as mifepristone, that can be used to abort a fetus. Doctors who send the drug into South Carolina would be legally liable. Even the creation of a website offering advice about abortion is prohibited.

Individuals who transport a woman to another state for an abortion would be guilty of a felony.

The bill encourages those with knowledge of an abortion to come forward and file civil suits for damages against all those involved. It turns South Carolina into a state filled with potential abortion bounty hunters, eager to be plaintiffs in such suits.

The bill tramples on freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, and a woman's right to make her own health care decisions.

What are Democrats in Columbia to do? Anguished speeches on the floor decrying this bill are not nearly enough.

They should be building a coalition with sensible Senate Republicans to stop this legislation. The 12 Senate Democrats must attract 12 Senate Republicans to join them. Twenty-four votes in the 46-seat chamber will stop it. (A 23-23 tie is not good enough because the Lt. Governor would break the tie, and she is a conservative Republican running in the primary to be the next Governor.)

They must convince the professional societies representing doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, and medical social workers to speak out strongly against this bill.

They must argue that S. 323 will drive doctors out of the state and make South Carolina very unattractive to women and their partners who don't share the views of the Taliban Three.

Republican Senators are insulated from reprisal at the ballot box until 2028. But if this bill makes it to the House, it should be a major issue in the 2026 elections, when all members of the House stand for re-election. Sonja Ogletree Satani, who is running in the special election to fill the District 98 seat in the House, should make S. 323 one focus of her campaign.

Finally, to regain some power in this state, Democrats must show voters they are not just against legislation banning abortion. They should spell out what they are for, including affordable health care, a lower cost of living, an honest method of selecting state judges, much stronger oversight of charter schools, and a host of other issues bearing on the daily lives of their constituents.

It's not as if the venal Trump administration is not presenting opportunities to stand up for South Carolina priorities. Just this week the Trump administration said it was abandoning protection of wetlands, a HUGE issue for us. And given that they have gutted FEMA, South Carolina will have to build its own robust emergency response agency. These are bipartisan issues that should be a focus of our party.

Don't expect the Taliban Three to address any of this. It's easier to attack women.

(For more on the specifics of S. 323 see Democracy Docket at this link: https://www.democracydocket.com/opinion/abortion-is-on-the-ballot-once-again/)