Gov. McMaster Signs
Fetal Heartbeat Bill
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By Holly Gatling, Executive Director
South Carolina Citizens for Life
COLUMBIA, SC (Thursday, February 18 2021) Pro-Life Governor Henry McMaster surrounded by state senators, state representatives, heads of pro-life and pro-family organizations, hundreds of grassroots pro-life supporters, and members of the
press, signed the Fetal Heartbeat Bill and Protection from Abortion Act (S1) into law Thursday in the State House lobby between the Senate and House chambers.
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The Fetal Heartbeat Act was passed by the Senate on January 28, 2021, and then by the House on third reading on February 18, the same day it was ratified, a procedure required before the governor can sign a bill into law. Finally pro-life Secretary of State Mark Hammond accepted the ratified act for enrollment and applied the Great Seal, the Seal of the State of South Carolina.
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Secretary of State Mark Hammond, center, with Dave Wilson, President of Palmetto Family, and Representative Lin Bennett, R-Charleston.
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Heartbeat Bill supporters carrying colorful signs, heart-shaped balloons, and headgear with hearts crowded the State House lobby and third floor walkway that overlooks the lobby. On Wednesday, pro-abortion Democrats held a press conference in the same area, but pro-life supporters rimmed the event and held up numerous pro-life signs.
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The Governor praised the work of the House and Senate to pass the law that gives a pregnant woman the right to know her unborn child has a heartbeat and gives her the right to hear the heartbeat if she so chooses. The law also protects most unborn children with a
detectible
heartbeat from death by abortion. “Life” he said, “is the first inalienable right. If there is not a right to life, what rights are there? The duty we share is to protect life above all else.”
Pro-Life and pro-family groups who supported and worked for passage of the Fetal Heartbeat Bill include South Carolina Citizens for Life, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, Palmetto Family, the South Carolina Republican Party, the SC Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, Concerned Women for America, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian Medical and Dental Association, and the Blessed Clemens von
Galen Catholic Medical Guild of South Carolina.
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Speaker of the House Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, praised the work of pro-life House members and Senators saying, “The right-to-life is the most sacred of all rights.”
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Senator Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, and chief sponsor of S1, the Fetal Heartbeat Bill, said, “We will give our unborn children legal protection.”
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Senator Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley, center, chief sponsor of the Fetal Heartbeat Bill, with (from left) Lisa Van Riper, President of South Carolina Citizens for Life, Jimmy Hepburn, SCCL lobbyist, and Holly Gatling, SCCL executive
director.
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Representative John McCravy, R-Greenwood, primary sponsor of fetal heartbeat legislation in the SC House.
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Representative John McCravy, president of the House Family Caucus, said, “The message is South Carolina stands for life. The pro-life movement is alive.”
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Lisa Van Riper, President of South Carolina Citizens for Life that has supported and worked successfully for 16 pro-life laws since 1990, told the crowd, “This is the most pro-life bill ever passed in South Carolina.” She added, “This is the beginning, not the end.” Still pending in both
the House and the Senate are “omnibus” bills that seek to outlaw dismemberment abortions and provide women with information about how the “Abortion Pill” can be reversed.
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1990 bill signing of the first of 16 pro-life laws in SC. It was the Parental Consent Act signed into law by Governor Carroll Campell (+ 2005) and witnessed by (from left standing) former Senator Joe Wilson (now US Congressman R-SC 2),
former Senator Jim Bryan, D-Laurens, Representative Terry Haskins, R-Greenville (+2000), former member of the SC House and Senate Mike Fair, R-Greenville, former Senator Wes Hayes, R-York, and former Senator David Thomas, R-Greenville, Brenda Hucks Cerkez, former SCCL executive director, former Representative Carol Wells, R-Spartanburg, Mark Dever and Julie Dever (+2021), former Senator Warren Giese (+2013) and former SC House Member and former Governor David Beasley. Congressman Wilson
was present Thursday for the signing of the 16th pro-life law, the Fetal Heartbeat Act.
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Holly Gatling
Executive Director
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