COLUMBIA, S.C. (Friday, March 11, 2022) Pro-Life Senator Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, has moved the Abortion Pill Reversal bill, S. 907, out of the Medical Affairs Committee onto the Senate Calendar. Senator Verdin who is chairman of the committee indicated last week that he would take the procedural move to advance the pro-life legislation after two senators walked out of the March 3, 2022, committee meeting to prevent action on the bill for lack of a quorum.

The law requires abortionists to inform women who take the “abortion pill” that there is a window of opportunity to reverse the effects of the lethal chemical if she seeks medical attention in time. The Abortion Pill Reversal bill is the number one priority on the legislative agenda of South Carolina Citizens for Life.

According to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control abortion data report, 67percent of the abortions occurring in South Carolina in 2020 were “chemical” abortions, also called “abortion pill” abortions.

The reason that Senator Verdin’s move to get S.907 on the Senate Calendar is that the bill faces the “crossover” deadline, April 9, 2022, to get the legislation to the House of  Representatives. Legislation that does not move from one chamber to the other by crossover is effectively defeated in the second year of a two year session.

The Senate Journal from Thursday, March 10, 2022, shows that Senator Verdin moved to poll S.907 out of his committee where it has been stalled since January 26, 2022. Under the Senate Rules, a bill that is stalled in a committee can be brought to the Senate Calendar by the majority of senators voting present. Senator Verdin won his motion to recall S.907 by a vote of 10 to 7 with one member not voting. Oddly, Senator Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, is recorded as voting for and against the polling motion. Senator Senn, along with Senator Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, were the two senators who walked out of the Medical Affairs Committee on March 3, 2022.

 

The next hurdle for S. 907 is to be set for special order because one senator, pro-abortion Senator Mia McLeod, D-Richland, registered her objection to the bill. This puts S. 907 at the bottom of the contested calendar.

 

On Thursday, March 10, 2022, the Special Laws Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee advanced the House version of the Abortion Pill Reversal bill to the full Judiciary Committee. If either the House or the Senate version meet the crossover deadline of April 9, 2022, chances are improved that the Abortion Pill Reversal Act will pass in 2022.

So far 14 states have passed a version of the Abortion Pill Reversal Act and it is currently in effect in 10 states. According to Carol Tobias, President of the National Right to Life Committee, at least 3,000 unborn babies’ lives have been saved when their mothers regretted her decision to abort and received medical help in time to save her child.