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There are moments in politics when voters aren’t simply choosing between two names on a ballot. They are deciding what kind of leadership they expect when the pressure is on. For pro-life South Carolinians, the August 25 Republican Senate runoff is one of those moments.
Students for Life Action (SFLA) proudly endorsed Congressman Ralph Norman for South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat because we don’t have to wonder where he will stand when the lives of mothers and their preborn children are at stake. His record already tells us.
Our cause is simple and noble: every human life has value, and no woman should ever feel that abortion is her only option. And when it comes to choosing who to vote for, we need not just words but deeds, especially in the U.S. Senate. It’s not a place to learn on the job.
That means protecting children before birth while standing alongside women during and after pregnancy. It means making campuses more welcoming to pregnant and parenting students. It means ensuring that taxpayers aren’t forced to subsidize abortion. And it means confronting the growing distribution of chemical abortion pills that can end a child’s life far from meaningful medical oversight.
Ralph Norman has demonstrated that he understands these priorities.
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Norman supported the “Pregnant Students’ Rights Act“, legislation championed by SFLAction to ensure pregnant students know about the resources and protections available to them. He voted for it again when the House passed the measure in January.
He has supported the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act“ and legislation assisting pregnant and parenting women and families. Norman has also opposed taxpayer funding of abortion and repeatedly introduced legislationrequiring greater transparency in abortion reporting. Most recently, he introduced the “Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 2025“, which would require states receiving certain federal Medicaid family-planning funds to report abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
His pro-life voting record has also earned him an A+ rating from SBA Pro-Life America’s congressional scorecard, even though the organization endorsed his opponent, U.S. Sen. Darline Graham.
And when South Carolina’s right to keep Medicaid dollars from Planned Parenthood reached the courts, Norman didn’t sit on the sidelines.
He joined South Carolina leaders in an amicus brief in Medina v. Planned Parenthood, defending the state’s authority to determine which providers qualify for Medicaid funding. Norman argued that private organizations such as Planned Parenthood should not be able to force states to recognize them as qualified Medicaid providers contrary to the state’s determination.
That’s a record, not a campaign-season promise. And records matter.
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RELATED | CONTROVERSIAL ENDORSEMENTS SPARKS PRO-LIFE SCHISM
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Consider that in 2023, three South Carolina Republican state senators, who became known as the “Sister Senators,” joined Democrats in blocking legislation that would have protected life when it begins at conception, so the Pro-Life Generation organized. During the 2024 Republican primaries, SFLAction deployed staff, students, and resources across South Carolina. We sent more than 37,000 pieces of mail, delivered nearly 130,000 personal text messages, made more than 51,000 phone calls, and knocked on thousands of doors. Ultimately, all three of the GOP legislators were replaced.
But Graham contributed to one of the “sisters,” state senator Katrina Shealy. And she also accepted money from one of the most notorious GOP pro-abortion roadblocks in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The company she keeps is cause for concern.
And in undercover video released this week, Graham said she wasn’t sure where she stood about ending all abortions.
Norman has taken Students for Life Action’s Pro-Life Candidate Pledge, committing himself to protecting children from conception, opposing taxpayer-funded abortion, fighting chemical abortion pill trafficking, and supporting mothers and their children after birth.
We know where Ralph Norman stands because he stood with us before he needed our endorsement. That is exactly the kind of senator the Pro-Life Generation needs.
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South Carolina needs a Senator who will FIGHT for Life.
— Students for Life Action (@SFLAction) August 17, 2026
That’s why we are proud to endorse @RalphNorman for U.S. Senate.https://t.co/qVyPdhucuI pic.twitter.com/5tJfQlwkIq
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On Tuesday night, August 18, members of the Pro-Life Generation were outside the Newberry Opera House as Norman debated Sen. Darline Graham. Our students and activists came to Newberry because elections have consequences, and South Carolina’s next Senator will have the opportunity to determine whether Washington protects Life or continues sending taxpayer dollars to an abortion industry responsible for ending it.
Our team will be knocking on doors this weekend. We’ll engage with voters. And we’ll continue building a generation that understands that human rights begin when human life begins.
But on Tuesday, August 25, pro-life South Carolinians have the opportunity to do their part as well.
Students for Life Action proudly supports Ralph Norman for the United States Senate because the Pro-Life Generation doesn’t just need politicians who say the right things during election season. We need fighters who will stand for Life when the vote is called.
Ralph Norman has shown us that he will.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, with more than 1,700 groups on middle and high school, college and university, medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her @KristanHawkins or subscribe to her podcast, The Kristan Hawkins Show.
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5 comments
Ms. Hawkins, I believe life starts at fertilization, which is even earlier than conception (implantation of the fertilized egg in the myometrium) which means, in my belief, IUDs are a form of abortion, not contraception.
Having said that, I cannot align being anti-abortion with being pro-death-penalty, which Ralph Norman is.
So, the morally consistent position is that of the Catholic Church: anti-contraception, anti-abortion, and anti-death penalty.
Neither Congressman Norman nor U.S. Senator Graham Nordone is Catholic or an opponent of contraception.
But I think your writing “the U.S. Senate [] is not a place to learn on the job” is an anti-life position because life is learning and every job is a place to learn on the job AND to improve on the job AND improve the workplace itself.
So, voters’ work should end once they cast their ballots. Voters should continuously evolve their elected officials, whoever the election-winners are, throughout their terms of office.
Meaning no attack on your organization, I see what you count as your successes are BASICALLY about cutting off public funding for abortions, NOT promoting the moral valuing of life to the point of termination of pregnancy being unthinkable by women who can afford private abortions and woman who depend on publicly-funded abortions alike.
Finally for this comment, does your organization support breast-feeding with the same intensity as it opposes abortion? Breast-feeding gives the newborns a better chance of survival and health than formula-feeding; and it should be made available to newborns of incarcerated mothers. The babies committed no crimes to be denied mother’s milk even if the mother were a convict.
Just some constructive thoughts about always remembering the ultimate goal even in the heat of a heated political rivalry.
endometrium, not myometrium. How could I have mistyped so badly?
Correction of an important but easily-missed typo”
“voters work should NOT end once they case their ballots.”
Another unfairness to Darlene is FITS’s evocation, on his WIR today, of the teen-age beauty contestant of decades ago.
The comparison is so off-base it is cruel.
That teen-age dumb blonde had been asked why 20% of Americans can’t find the U.S. on a map of the world. Darline was asked a very specific national security question.
I would have been worried if Darline HAD AN OPINION. Not every Joe (or Jill) Schmoe needs to have an opinion on national security.
Heck! Not even every member of Congress gets full briefing on national security issues, only members who sit on select committees do.
I have more confidence in someone who admits what she does not know than in a someone spouting off sonorous opinions without sufficient underlying knowledge.
People can learn.
Darline seems to be a quick study.
I do not recall such a fuss when Sara Palin bragged about her national security “expertise” with “I can see Russia from my house.” And Palin was then running for Vice-President.
Even after the election, please review these other comments of mine, with my thanks:
All stories and comment threads and YouTube shows which mention “right-to-life” or being “pro-life” should seriously consider this comment of mine on all Micah Miller-related stories:
Don’t ever gloss over what Micah did: She took A HUMAN LIFE even if it were only her own.
Don’t ever forget what suicide is: The taking of A HUMAN LIFE not in defense of others.
If you think there is no excuse for the taking of a human life not in defense of others, then there should be no excuse for suicide.
By glorifying Micah you inadvertently but surely give excuse to the bullied of the world to consider suicide.
STOP doing that!
You are first and foremost IRREPARABLY harming YOUR OWN CHILDREN/Grandchildren for cheap clicks; and some after-the-fact lectures about the worth of their own lives will have little effect after they see how you excused and glorified a suicidant.
STOP it if you want your children free from the temptation of suicide in response to every little annoyance, every deprivation, and/or very rejection!
If you take no other warning from my later-vindicated writings throughout the years, take THIS ONE!