STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 22.17 | April 28, 2023
Preview (opens in a new tab)NEWS: S.C. female senators block abortion ban bill
NEWS BRIEFS: S.C. House sends voucher bill to governor’s desk
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: The plan on sea-level rise
COMMENTARY, Brack: On dysfunction, for what it’s worth
SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Farm Bureau
MY TURN, E. Brack: Thomas should resign from U.S. Supreme Court
FEEDBACK: On closed primaries, the Charleston loophole and tax reform
MYSTERY PHOTO: Green monster
Near-total abortion ban blocked again in Senate
Staff reports | South Carolina senators narrowly rejected a near-total abortion ban this week, marking the third time a near-total abortion ban failed in the Republican-led chamber since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade last summer.
Differing versions of abortion bans have ping-ponged between S.C. House and Senate since last year. The federal court’s decision on Roe opened South Carolina last summer to a six-week abortion ban passed in 2021 by the General Assembly. But South Carolina courts temporarily blocked that ban and the S.C. Supreme Court eventually permanently struck it down saying the six-week ban was unconstitutional for violating the state’s right to privacy. In the meantime, the House twice pushed through a tougher, near-total ban, which was smacked down in the Senate.
Earlier this year, the House tried again, sending another near-total ban to the Senate (H. 3774). It calls for abortion to be banned at conception, with exceptions for rape or incest through the first trimester, fatal fetal anomalies confirmed by two physicians, and to save a patient’s life or health. Meanwhile, the Senate sent a proposal (S. 474) banning abortion about six weeks after conception to the House. So far, the House hasn’t taken up that bill in committee, although it could move forward in the current session’s remaining two weeks.
When asked how the dueling proposals on abortion could end the back-and-forth battle between the two chambers, S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, told Statehouse Report: “It’s in the House’s hands. They can stop it now by passing the Senate bill sent to them in February.”
Women led filibuster of House bill
On Thursday, the Senate’s five women senators — Shealy, Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, Mia McLeod, I-Richland, Penry Gustafson, R-Kershaw, and Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton — led the third day of a filibuster to thwart the House’s near-total abortion ban.
“The only thing that we can do when you all, you men in the chamber, metaphorically keep slapping women by raising abortion again and again and again, is for us to slap you back with our words,” Senn said during the debate, according to published reports.
McLeod, who revealed in a previous debate that she had been raped, added Thursday: “Those who continue to push legislation like this are raping us again with their indifference, violating us again with their righteous indignation, taunting us again with their insatiable need to play God while they continue to pass laws that are ungodly.”
Senators eventually voted 22-21 to cut off debate on the measure.
On the continuing culture war
When asked how long the culture war over abortion would continue, Matthews said she had been wondering that for the last seven years she’s been in the Senate.
“Control over a woman’s body is the real issue,” she said. “If their goal was to protect children, there are currently a lot of the children in South Carolina now that need their protection. The real question is when are the other women of South Carolina going to start showing up and speaking out?”
Ann Warner and women’s rights advocates have been vociferous in their support for high-quality health care, including abortion, for women in South Carolina.
“We are relieved that the Senate failed to pass an extreme and dangerous abortion bill today,” said Warner, head of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN), on Thursday.
“We are incredibly grateful for the courage and tenacity displayed by our female senators, and we are also so thankful that advocates across South Carolina never stopped speaking up and showing up for reproductive freedom. We hope our lawmakers will turn their attention to passing laws that will make South Carolinians safer, healthier and more free.”
Planned Parenthood’s Vicki Ringer added, “The government should never force a person to carry a pregnancy or give birth against their will, but this male-dominated legislature is hellbent on controlling the decisions of women.
“A person’s health, not politicians, should guide important medical decisions at all stages of pregnancy. We urge House lawmakers to focus on policies that will actually help South Carolinians live and thrive in their communities rather than try yet again to ban abortion in the state.”
Her group pointed to state data that showed “pregnancy-related deaths increased by 9.3% in South Carolina between 2018 and 2019, with Black women 67% more likely to die either during childbirth or due to pregnancy-related complications than their White counterparts. The state’s infant mortality rate also continues to climb, increasing by 12% from 2020 to 2021 overall and by almost 40% since 2017 for infants born to non-Hispanic Black mothers.”
Abortion remains legal through 22 weeks in South Carolina.
- Have a comment? Send to feedback@statehousereport.com
S.C. House sends voucher bill to governor’s desk
Staff reports | The South Carolina House on Thursday voted 74-36 to give final approval to an education voucher bill that will clear the way for 15,000 students to be able to use public money for private school tuition.
Gov. Henry McMaster has said he will sign the bill, a funding policy Republicans have been trying to pass for two decades.
The measure allows parents and guardians to get up to $6,000 a year to pay for tuition, transportation, supplies or technology at public or private schools outside their district. According to the Associated Press, the measure will cost about $30 million next year and could get as expensive as $90 million a year.
In other recent headlines:
Final sentences issued in S.C. Statehouse ethics scandal cases. A South Carolina judge sentenced two former state lawmakers, bringing an end to an eight-year Statehouse corruption probe.
Bill on Sunday liquor sales fails to pass. An S.C. House subcommittee voted 2-1 to punt on a bill that would allow the state’s urban and tourism counties to hold referendums to legalize Sunday liquor sales.
McMaster nominates next director of state insurance department. McMaster nominated Michael Wise as the next director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance.
S.C. lawmakers vet candidates for Santee Cooper board seats. Legislators questioned candidates seeking to fill five of the 14 seats at the state-owned power and water utility. All but one candidate were nominated by Gov. Henry McMaster.
Berkeley County lawmaker wants tax cuts for country club members. A bill in the state Legislature proposed by Republican Rep. Mark Smith, R-Berkeley, would prohibit the state from levying the admissions tax on for-profit golf clubs’ membership dues.
Lucas honored with portrait in S.C. chamber. Former S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas will watch over the South Carolina chamber with his official portrait being unveiled Tuesday.
The plan on sea-level rise
Climate change and rising seas are real things, despite some hot air out there. Cartoonist Robert Arial, always creative and entertaining, offers this take. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
On dysfunction, for what it’s worth
By Andy Brack | An old Buffalo Springfield song popped up on the radio the other day and its lyrics seem fresh in light of continued dysfunction in governing at the state and national levels.
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
In Washington, there’s dysfunction related to the debt ceiling, abortion, guns, the Jan. 6 overthrow attempt, the Supreme Court’s ethics, and continuing battles between the House and Senate.
In South Carolina, there are continuing culture wars over – guess what – abortion, guns, court reform and battles between ideologies.
Leaders are talking at each other, not to each other. They’re talking to their tribes, not working to bring everybody together.
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
Compromise seems to be a 10-letter dirty word. Avoidance of real discussion seems to be a leading political behavior.
South Carolina Republicans have run state government for 20 years. Despite boatloads of tax money in recent years, look what we’ve still got: an education system stuck at the bottom, a health care system that is clunky and unhelpful to many, crowded prisons that are unsafe for guards, gerrymandered voting districts that exacerbate unfair elections, too many guns on the street leading to too many deadly shootings, and persisting poverty that hasn’t truly been addressed in at least two generations.
Imagine how politicians might be forced to deal with issues if they started answering and discussing tough questions, instead of avoiding them out of some odd sense of noblesse oblige, politeness, awkwardness, fear of losing power or fear of losing relevance.
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away
So here are some tough questions, particularly for those leading South Carolina:
Democracy. What are you actively doing to protect and defend our democracy and make it stronger as too many people, domestic and foreign, seem to be trying to destroy it?
Poverty. What active steps are you taking now to end persisting poverty? And don’t just say “creating opportunity” or “creating jobs.” Skill levels and schools have to be improved radically, not incrementally. Better health care has to be widely available.
Abortion. White male Republicans: When will you get over the obsession with abortion. Two-thirds of Americans want abortion options. You haven’t built a majority on the issue since the Roe decision came down 50 years ago. Can’t we move on beyond culture wars and act like other developed countries?
Guns. South Carolina’s police chiefs by a large margin advise that permitless carry of guns in South Carolina is going to make it less safe for law enforcement officers and the general public. Why can’t lawmakers and leaders like you stop pushing this dangerous policy that, if enacted, surely will lead to more deaths?
To be clear: It’s not just Republicans who are culpable for the mess that our state and country is in. Democrats, particularly at the state level, haven’t won any awards for stellar leadership to try to get the country out of its current miasma.
Regardless of whether you like Joe Biden as president, he seems to be one of the few leaders we have with his head screwed on straight about how the country needs to pull together to stay strong. Perhaps we should listen to him as a veteran leader, not just as a Democrat. From this week’s announcement that he’s running for reelection at age 80:
“The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do, too. This is not a time to be complacent.”
We better stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
Andy Brack, recognized in 2022 as the best columnist in South Carolina, is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com. (If you didn’t figure it out, the song was “For what it’s worth,” by Buffalo Springfield, 1966.)
S.C. Farm Bureau
Statehouse Report is provided for free to thousands of subscribers thanks to the generosity of our underwriters. Today we shine a spotlight on our newest underwriter, S.C. Farm Bureau. It is a grassroots, non-profit organization that celebrates and supports family farmers, locally-grown food and rural lands through legislative advocacy, education and community outreach.
S.C. Farm Bureau’s alliance of nearly 100,000 members includes everyone from foodies and fishermen to lawyers, restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and of course, farmers. By connecting farmers to the larger community, the organization cultivates understanding about agriculture’s importance to our local economies. The S.C. Farm Bureau explains its mission: “We deepen our collective knowledge of who, where and how food grows. We empower people to make informed choices. We grow mutually-beneficial relationships. And, we ensure the future of the family farms, locally-grown food and the rural South Carolina lands we love.”
- To learn more about S.C. Farm Bureau’s programs, click here.
- To view media and publications, click here
- For policy and legislation, click here.
Thomas should resign from U.S. Supreme Court
By Elliott Brack, republished with permission | Improper is what it is. He is guilty of impropriety.
We’re talking about, of all occupations, a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
For any judge to do something unethical and improper is almost unthinkable.
And on top of that, he’s originally from our own state of Georgia.
How embarrassing, apparently for us, but apparently not for him. That makes it even worse.
Yes, we’re thinking of Clarence Thomas, the current longest-serving justice ever. Had he not remained on the bench all these years, we may never have realized just how far out of bounds he has become in accepting not small, but large gifts, from the friends. He has hung to his well-placed friend closely for years.
Now at least we can understand why. He’s being rewarded.
The Thomas personal indiscretions are of his own doing. We have previously learned that his longtime wife has problems with questionable activities, and possibly, has carved herself a seat of power in perhaps influencing his court decisions.
But his indiscretions are not just something that have come to light only recently. It was as far back as 2004 when the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips paid for by Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real estate investor and a prominent Republican donor.
More revelations have come lately. Their scale is astounding. One trip that Crow bestowed on the justice and his wife was to Indonesia in 2019 for “nine days of island-hopping” on a 162-foot superyacht. One report placed the value of such a trip at over a half million dollars! Can you imagine?
No telling how much “hospitality” Ginni and Clarence Thomas have accepted from Crow. You must wonder who else is “treating” the justice and his wife.
That’s a far cry from where the justice was born in Pin Point, Ga., near Savannah, in 1948. His father abandoned his family, and Clarence was raised by his maternal grandparents in a poor Gullah community. Growing up Catholic, Thomas originally intended to be a priest. He graduated from the College of Holy Cross in 1971 and got his law degree from Yale University.
Journalists say that it remains unclear whether Thomas has violated any law or regulation by accepting such gifts and not disclosing them. But one thing is for sure: the conduct by the justice sure does give rise to the use of the word “impropriety” in these circumstances.
You also wonder what the other eight members of the Court are thinking about the low esteem the court is now facing because of these indiscretions by one of their members. It must make cordial relations among the justices much more difficult.
And no less an onlooker than Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) tweeted “the highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standard. Justice Thomas’ lavish undisclosed trips with a GOP mega-donor undermine the trust that our country places in the Supreme Court. Time for an enforceable code of conduct for justices.”
Justices should know their limits on accepting gifts. Chief Justice John Roberts has written: “Congress has directed justices and judges to comply with both financial reporting requirements and limitations on the receipt of gifts and outside earned income.”
How long will Justice Thomas remain on the court? It’s been far too long already. For the benefit of returning “propriety” of the court, and for the good of the nation, a native of our own state, Clarence Thomas, should resign.
Veteran Georgia journalist Elliott Brack is editor and publisher of GwinnettForum, where this commentary first appeared. Have a comment? Sent to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
On closed primaries, Charleston loophole and tax reform
To the editor:
I want to point out to you the other side of closing primaries. I am a very conservative voter who would agree with you on little other than closing the Charleston loophole, but I voted in the Democratic presidential primary in both 2016 and 2020. I had no preference in the 2016 Republican primary, so I voted for Bernie Sanders on the theory that he’d be the easiest candidate for the Republican nominee to beat. I bragged to the poll workers I’d NEVER vote for any Democratic presidential candidate in the general election, but if this state is stupid enough to allow open primaries, I am going to milk it for what it’s worth. I voted for Bernie again in 2020, given no Republican primary, and they thanked me for coming. That time, I said nothing.
As for the Charleston loophole, legislators have had almost eight years to close it, but instead they harp on worthless “hate crimes” legislation. Why aren’t they asking the most important question in this matter from the rooftops: Why hasn’t Dylann Roof been executed?
As an enrolled agent who prepares tax returns, I also agree this state needs massive tax reform, but the devil is in the details. The lowering of the rates this year has resulted in an increase in the marriage penalty to a potential $661. I filed several couples separately because of it; you have to be in the same federal tax bracket, or almost there, to benefit.
I would actually favor eliminating the state income tax as it is a disgrace, riddled with every loophole/deduction imaginable. Eliminating the sales tax cap on autos would be the starting point for replacing it, as well as raising cigarette and alcohol taxes.
– Wayne Ridlehoover, Greenwood
Send us your thoughts
We encourage you to send in your thoughts about policy and politics impacting South Carolina. We’ve gotten some letters in the last few weeks – some positive, others nasty. We print non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your thoughts.
Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
Green monster
There’s a lot of green in this photo. What is it and where is it? Send us your guess – as well as your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s photo – “What’s the historic significance?” – showed a building in Abbeville County that looked like it was falling down. Only one mystery sleuth – the unflappable Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, figured it out. (Note: It was the third week in a row that we featured a photo from the Library of Congress archives.)
Peel writes, “Today’s mystery photo is of an old, single-story, two-room log cabin (dimensions: 32’4″ x 18’4″) that was one of the buildings at the Harper-Featherstone Tenant Farm off Country Road 81 (aka Harpers Ferry Rd) approximately 5 miles southwest of Lowndesville, SC.
“There is little historical information available about this particular cabin, but it is assumed to have been built to house slaves by tenant farmers during the antebellum age. It is also unknown as to where this house was originally located, but it was first built with a fireplace in the early 1800s. The fireplace was removed before the house was moved to its current location at the Harper-Featherstone Tenant Farm in the early 1900s.
“The Harper-Featherstone Tenant Farm was a collection of farm buildings that date from the tenant-farming days during antebellum period in the South. …For a more complete description and history of this building and the Harper-Featherstone Tenant Farm, check out the Historic American Building Survey HABS SC-381 document (from the National Park Service) here.”
Thanks Allan … and great job!
>> Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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