A heavily amended version of an abortion bill is awaiting a vote from the Medical Affairs Committee of the South Carolina Senate.
The bill, which is titled the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, contained amendments to the original bill that will permit abortion for children who have been conceived through rape and for children who will be born with disabilities.
According to the National Right to Life News, the amendments were introduced by pro-abortion Senator Brad Hutto. Hutto's amendments were supported by Senators Kevin Johnson and Ray Cleary. Only two Senators, Sen. Tom Davis and Sen. Shane Martin's proxy, voted against the amendments.
The five senators made up a subcomittee of the full Medical Affairs Committee of the Senate, which was expected to deliberate on the bill this week.
The subcommittee heard several objections to the amendments from private individuals during the hearing for the Act, which passed South Carolina's House of Representatives in February with an 80-27 vote.
One of the opponents was Joshua Styles, professor of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies at North Greenville University. In a submission to Senator Cleary, he reasoned that findings during pre-natal examinations can prove to be wrong; the proposed amendments would remove protections from unborn children who can "feel pain"; and the amendments wouldintroduce two classes of children - those who are "normal" and those who are denied protection because they are disabled.
Styles said that the proposed amendments would betray efforts in South Carolina and across the nation to provide legal rights for disabled people.
"To make such a distinction on the basis of disability or abnormality is not only grossly offensive to me as a father, but it flies in the face of every effort that has been made in our State and in this nation to afford those with disabilities the same legal protection as those who do not have disabilities," Styles stated in his letter.
