oday, South Carolina Democratic Party chair Christale Spain, State Senator Margie Bright Matthews, State Representative Beth Bauer, and State Representative Chandra Dillard held a press call to mark the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court upending decades of precedent and overturning Roe v Wade.
One year after the Supreme Court allowed politicians to make women’s health care decisions, speakers called out the MAGA Republicans parachuting into the Palmetto State for the 2024 race and South Carolina Republicans for their dangerous anti-choice agenda.
Read highlights from participants below:
“Tomorrow marks one year since the conservative Supreme Court upended decades of precedent and overturned Roe v Wade – a decision that protected the right of multiple generations of women to keep important health care decisions between their families, their doctor, and their God. It opened the floodgates to allow MAGA Republicans in South Carolina and across the country to rip away reproductive health care. We didn’t get here by accident. This is the direct result of a decades-long attack by Republicans who stacked the courts with right-wing judges so they could open the door to banning abortion nationwide,” said South Carolina Democratic Party chair Christale Spain. “Republicans will continue to out MAGA each other on abortion extremism – putting women, families, victims of rape and abuse, and health care professionals at risk of death or jail. But, Democrats are fighting to protect our access to all reproductive health care options. Even though we’re in the minority here in South Carolina, we know what’s at stake and we’ll never stop using every tool in our power to stand up to Republicans’ MAGA agenda.”
“Republicans have established an agenda and they’ve marched on since the overturn of Roe. They will not stop until their form of government invades our privacy and takes over our health care choices. We need to put a stop to this because a woman’s body is not chattel to be held by the MAGA Republicans,” said State Senator Margie Bright Matthews. “Let’s be honest: this was never about returning the decision to the states, it was always about putting people in place to ban abortion nationwide. It is horrifying to think that women in my community will have fewer rights than the generations before them as they grow up. But that’s the future Governor McMaster and MAGA Republicans want.”
“This [6-week abortion ban] comes down to freedom, this comes down to personal liberties, this bill is out of touch with what South Carolinians believe in. This is about protecting rape victims. This is about women being full citizens in South Carolina and without this access to health care we are not. [Republicans] do not speak for the majority of South Carolinians. This is a South Carolinian issue regardless of where you stand [on the political spectrum]. You take our rights, we’ll take your seat,” said Representative Heather Bauer.
How can we continue to recruit businesses that employ folks in our community with this quality of life? They’re not going to come here. Fortune 500 companies are thinking twice about relocating to states that have these extreme abortion bans. More than 180 major ave said an abortion ban would be ‘bad for business’ and threaten the ‘independence, health, and economic stability of employees and customers,’ said State Representative Chandra Dillard. “This is the future McMaster and Republicans up and down the ballot want for South Carolina – a future where businesses don’t put money in our communities, where job creation stalls, and women and families are forced to give birth in cases of rape or incest.”
