Dueling abortion bans emerge in South Carolina chambers

By JAMES POLLARD
Associated Press/Report for America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Dueling abortions bans are once more advancing in the South Carolina House and Senate as Republican lawmakers approach a familiar standstill. Neither chamber budged from their respective proposals in a special session last year, so Republican leaders are now advancing different bills. The Senate bill bars abortions when cardiac activity is detected, around the sixth week of pregnancy. The House bill bans abortion from conception. Republican Sen. Richard Cash says “there obviously seems to be some sort of race going on here as to who can get their bill through a committee, through the body, first to the finish line.”