The Quickie: South Carolina Senate Committee Considers Near Total Abortion Ban Today

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie” online here. 

SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE COMMITTEE CONSIDERS NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN TODAY: Today, the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee is considering H.B. 5399, a bill that would ban nearly all abortion in the state. After political maneuvering, the bill passed the House last week. Now, state senators will decide whether to prioritize politics over people’s lives or to listen to their constituents, who overwhelmingly support keeping abortion safe and legal. Banning abortion would have devastating and deadly consequences in a state with dangerously high rates of maternal and infant mortality – particularly among Black women and babies – and a severe health care provider shortage. If the ban passes out of committee today, it will head to the Senate floor tomorrow.

“State lawmakers’ crusade to take away women’s rights and freedoms is not about life but about shame, power, and control, and their political game will leave the people of this state at the mercy of politicians who are grossly misinformed about how pregnancy or basic reproductive health care works,” said Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “The bottom line is this bill amounts to a government mandate that will put people’s lives at risk. This is not what South Carolinians want for their state, and we urge legislators to reject it."

Watch PPSAT President and CEO Jenny Black on the fight to protect abortion in South Carolina here via MSNBC.

LAWSUIT FILED IN OHIO TO RESTORE ABORTION ACCESS: Last Friday, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, and the law firm WilmerHale filed a lawsuit in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas bringing a state constitutional challenge against SB 23, a law banning abortion at approximately six weeks of pregnancy. The reproductive rights organizations ask the court to immediately restore Ohioans’ reproductive rights secured by the Ohio Constitution. 

This lawsuit comes more than two months after the draconian bill took effect on June 24, 2022 for the first time since it was passed in 2019, causing an immediate, devastating crisis across the state.

“This six-week abortion ban was designed to be cruel and intended to target already disproportionately marginalized communities. We will not stand for it. Hopefully, [Friday’s] filing is just the first step toward putting power back into the hands of patients and keeping lawmakers out of private medical decisions,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Due to the ongoing irreparable harm to Ohioans, the reproductive rights organizations have withdrawn the lawsuit they initially filed in the state Supreme Court in late June and are asking the lower court to grant immediate relief blocking the ban.

Find the full press release here, and read more at Cincinnati.com and WLWT 5. 

MATERNAL HEALTH AT THE CENTER OF THE CONVERSATION IN THE RAIZADO FESTIVAL: Last week, during the Raizado Festival in Aspen, CO, a groundbreaking event that convened Latinx leaders from all over the country, Adrienne Mansanares, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountain’s president and CEO, held a panel about maternal health and inequalities in health care with Netflix Gentefied’s Annie Gonzalez and COLOR’s political director, Christina Soliz. During the panel, they spoke about overlapping between states with abortion bans and states with the least investments in maternal health, as well as the impact these have on Latino communities accross the nation. Mansanares also stressed the importance of having Latinos and Black and Indigenous people in decision-making spaces and in care-providing spaces to ameliorate the outcomes of maternal health markers for non-white communities.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Raíz and Latinx Campaigns Specialist, Joe Colón-Uvalles, was also present as his drag persona, Kween Beatrix, to highlight the fact that everyone, no matter who they are and where they come from, are a part of the fight for reproductive rights and  justice. 

Read more about the Raizado Festival in The Nation.  

“BEFORE IT WAS A THREAT–NOW IT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING:” VOTER REGISTRATION AND SUPPORT FOR ABORTION IS ON THE RISE IN A POST-ROE REALITY: An article in yesterday’s Washington Post dives into the shifting landscape of the midterm elections following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, noting that registration is on the rise among women in key states ahead of November. Support for legalized abortion has also grown since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. A new Wall Street Journal poll found that 60% of voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up from 55% in March. 

The Post article describes the ways in which Democrats are witnessing the effects of the overturning of Roe in the midterms: 

While other factors such as slowing inflation have eroded the Republican advantage, according to strategists in both parties, no issue has upended the battle for Congress and statehouses as abruptly as abortion. An enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican voters has narrowed since the Supreme Court’s ruling, polling shows, while women voters who drifted away from Democratic Party after the 2020 election are shifting back. Democrats have overperformed in special elections and voters showed up in droves to reject an ballot measure in ruby red Kansas aimed at restricting abortion.

As one voter told the Post: “They will ban abortions if the wrong people are elected,” said Preston, 22, a small-town amusement park supervisor about to head back to school. “Before it was a threat. Now it’s actually happening.”

Read more from the Washington Post here.