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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina senators have scheduled another hearing on a bill that would ban all abortions in the Palmetto State – including pregnancies caused by rape or incest.
The ‘Unborn Child Protection Act,’ S. 323, was introduced in February of this year by state senator Richard Cash. Earlier this month, a legislative panel led by Cash heard hours of heated public testimony regarding the bill. Now, a reconfigured S.C. Senate medical affairs subcommittee is scheduled to take it up again.
According to a hearing notice (.pdf) sent from the office of medical affairs chairman Danny Verdin, a nine-member subcommittee chaired by Cash will take up the bill on Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. EST in Room 308 of the Gressette office building in downtown Columbia, S.C.
“No further public testimony will be taken at this meeting,” the notice advised.
Cash will be joined on the panel by Senate minority leader Brad Hutto and senators Tom Corbin, Tom Fernandez, Billy Garrett, Ronnie Sabb, Deon Tedder and Jeff Zell.
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RELATED | ABORTION BATTLE RAGES ON
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A curious new addition to the subcommittee? Scandal-scarred state senator Matt Leber, whose “mistress-gate” controversy dominated headlines over the summer. Regular members of our audience will also recall that Tedder, another member of the subcommittee, has been the focus of a criminal investigation into alleged sexual assault.
Corbin also drew the ire of women across the Palmetto State a decade ago when he joked with a former female colleague, Katrina Shealy, that women were a “lesser cut of meat.”
Whatever your views on the issue of abortion, that’s an interesting trio to put on this panel…
“A cheat, a(n alleged) rapist and a misogynist walk into a committee room,” noted one former senator granted permission to speak anonymously about Leber, Tedder and Corbin.
Leber is hoping to use this hot-button social issue to rebrand himself with GOP primary voters who have soured on him in the wake of his scandal.
“He’s looking for allies since his implosion this summer, and that’s one way to get them,” a source familiar with his appointment told FITSNews.
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Cash’s abortion ban is even more aggressive than H. 3457, the ‘Human Life Protection Act.’ This bill failed to pass the S.C. House of Representatives earlier this year after S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith and S.C. House judiciary chairman Weston Newton refused to advance it. As FITSNews previously reported, Smith and Newton hypocritically punted on the legislation – then falsely attacked Family Caucus founder John McCravy when they were criticized for their inaction by national pro-life leaders.
Students for Life Action (S4LA) – the group which slammed Smith and Newton – previously took out a trio of Republican senators it deemed to be insufficiently loyal to the pro-life position. According to the group’s leader, Kristan Hawkins, it is supporting the House bill as a “principled alternative that would end all abortions and recognize both victims of the abortion industry, children and mothers.”
In a letter (.pdf) to lawmakers, Hawkins referred to the House bill as “a common-sense way forward in how to abolish abortion for good, without compromising on principles that protect pre-born children from their earliest days as well as mothers who are often the second-victim of the predatory abortion industry.”
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States were granted authority to set abortion law following the U.S. supreme court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. In South Carolina, lawmakers’ first attempt to regulate abortion was narrowly struck down by the state supreme court in early 2023. That controversial 3-2 decision focused on the six-week requirement of the 2021 law – which was successfully challenged by Planned Parenthood on the grounds it violated privacy protections of the S.C. Constitution (Article I, Section 10).
Issues with the 2021 law were addressed in an updated piece of legislation – Act No. 70 of 2023, also known as the ‘Heartbeat Bill.’ This legislation outlawed abortion in nearly all cases following the detection of a human heartbeat. The ‘Heartbeat Bill’ was upheld by the supreme court six months ago, with associate justice John Few writing the unanimous opinion.
Few has since been targeted by lawmakers, who believe he should have allowed the first law to stand.
Legislative observers have told us they expect S. 323 to clear the subcommittee – without amendments – prior to the reconvening of the legislature in January. At that point, it will be up to Verdin to decide whether to schedule a hearing on the bill in front of the full medical affairs committee.
“He’ll let it go to (the) full committee,” a legislative source said, referring to Verdin.
Meanwhile, H. 3457 remains bottled up in the S.C. judiciary committee, where chairman Newton has thus far refused to advance it.
Count on FITSNews to attend next month’s hearing and provide our audience with updates on the status of this legislation as it continues to move through the S.C. General Assembly.
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THE NOTICE…
(S.C. State House)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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2 comments
“A cheat, a(n alleged) rapist, and a misogynist walk into a committee room…” And? Please give us the punch line.
How many of the GOPers who vote for this ensure their mistresses, or kids, or kids’ girlfriends get care out of state when it comes to them to actually having an opportunity to show how pro-life they are in their own personal lives?