The three Republican women senators from South Carolina who helped overturn the state’s almost complete prohibition on abortion are losing their races during Tuesday’s primary.
After joining with Democratic women to defeat the measure, which said a pregnant woman shouldn’t lose control of her body as soon as an egg is fertilized, voters handed the senators—as well as the winners of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award—two losses and a runoff.
However, the state may find itself devoid of a single Republican woman in the Senate by 2025, as it only had men in the chamber in 2012. Out of the 46 members, there are just two Democratic women.
Sen. Katrina Shealy, who is preparing for a runoff, declared, “You can’t tell me that’s not a slap in the face of women. Republican women lose like this over one issue when we fought so hard for other things.”
Defying the trend
On Tuesday, voters defied the general trend and rejected a more restricted abortion bill.
According to state-wide surveys, not many people want an almost complete prohibition. However, there was little attendance, and the races were in Republican-drawn districts, where experts claim voters are more passionate about abortion-related issues.
Once heart activity is identified, usually six weeks after conception, the state eventually implements a ban, thanks to pressure from the Republican women who had forced a compromise.
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Shealy’s exit
Though she only managed to garner 40% of the vote, Shealy was the only female Republican survivor of the evening. In the runoff on June 25, she will compete against lawyer and recent political arrival Carlisle Kennedy.
Shealy led the effort to shift the state’s political affiliation from Democratic to Republican over the previous fifty years, but billboards criticizing her for not being “pro-life” were plastered all over her district in Lexington County. Kennedy didn’t answer messages on Wednesday.
Remaining out of the fray was Shealy’s major plan. When a woman speaks up or takes a stand, she will probably alter her strategy for the runoff, she said on Wednesday, even if doing so makes others uncomfortable.
When Shealy was elected in 2012, the Senate from South Carolina had only had one female senator and had been completely male for four years.
There is a very good likelihood that there will only be two women in the Senate in 2025—both Democrats—if Hillary loses.
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This implies that causes she supports, like providing free lunches for all students, may go unnoticed and the viewpoint of women, who make up 55% of South Carolina’s registered voters, may be lost, she said.
“I broke that ceiling not for abortion rights — I broke it because we needed someone to care about children and families and veterans and old people,” Shealy stated. “All these people no one was taking care of. I came in there and gave them a voice.”
