South Carolina Statehouse Blog

A new law regarding abortions recently passed through the state legislator and will soon be signed by Governor Sanford. The law involves new guidelines in the inevitably controversial issue of abortions. As would be expected in legislation regarding this topic, debates and emotions accompanied this bill on its way to the Governor.

This soon-to-be law specifically states that the doctor giving an abortion must inform the patient that an ultrasound has been taken, and that the patient has a right to view it. The patient then chooses to view it, or not, and must sign a paper saying that she was given the information by the doctor. Then, before having an abortion performed, the patient must wait one hour, whether she views the ultrasound or not.

It is already common practice to perform an ultrasound before giving an abortion, but this law explicitly states that the patient must be informed about it and follow the above details.

Senator Kevin Bryant is a main sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, bill S 0084. Sen. Bryant is and always has been adamantly pro-life, and says that is one of the reasons for why he got into politics in the first place. He explained that the liberty of the child in the womb should be protected, and hence, stated “I’ve always supported legislation to protect those rights.”

Sen. Bryant confidently stated “I think this is more effective than outlawing abortion.” This is because of the fact that when outlawed, people simply see it as a law; they do not examine the rationale behind it. Here, they think about it and rights of the child are more apt to be put into thought. Sen. Bryant claims that in cases where the mothers view the ultrasound images, about 85% of them choose not to have an abortion.

Senator Kevin Bryant explained that the hour waiting period is installed to promote patience and contemplation in the process. Although Representative Delleney’s version in the House, House Bill H 3355, is the one that ultimately passed, Sen. Bryant is still happy with the end result. The House version is more of a “safe” approach to implementing the law, explained Sen. Bryant. Delleney’s version was initially strict and aggressive, but changes were ultimately made in committees. Sen. Bryant wanted a more aggressive approach to this idea. Sen. Bryant’s version was more of a test case that would have inevitably seen the Supreme Court, perhaps being held up in the courts for several years. The House version is safer because it is proven to work in other states and has been upheld in courts, so there will be little controversy over its constitutionality.

Sen. Bryant said he wanted the viewing of ultrasound images to be more mandatory, but he still supports this law as it stands. Moreover, he explained that there are two approaches to the pro-life ideal. One side wants to make the strongest pro-life legislation in the nation. The other wants to play it safe and take laws that are proven to hold up in court, but this certainly comes with some amount of compromise and is less aggressive. The plus-side of the safe approach is that once passed, it will immediately go into effect, rather than get held up in the court system.

Making all kinds of national news, this is clearly a large step in the issue of abortions. Furthermore, there are other states that have adopted this sort of approach in the recent past, and Oklahoma also passed a similar law to this one very recently. One can assume that this may become a national trend of some sort, and Sen. Bryant says that he hopes that is the case.

The law can be seen as a compromise of the two sides in the debate about abortion. As Sen. Bryant put it, a choice is still being given to women, but patience, contemplation and the liberty of the child in the womb is being stressed. It seems as though both sides of the issue can see some sort of victory and progress here.