What do the college football national championship game and the South Carolina Legislature have in common? Both have two halves that can be very different as to who comes out on top!
If you are an Alabama fan, you probably wish this year’s championship game had ended at halftime. If you are a Georgia fan, you are thankful that when the second half began, the Bulldogs were just getting warmed up.
The second half of the South Carolina legislative session began on Jan. 9, with the formal return of the House and Senate. Both chambers worked over the summer and deep into the fall on redistricting (the redrawing of South Carolina voter district lines based on the 2020 census information), the distribution of federal COVID dollars, and various committee hearings on a number of issues that will be fully explored now that the second half has begun.
One Message (a conservative coalition of grassroots organizations that includes South Carolina Citizens for Life, Palmetto Family, Alliance Defending Freedom, the South Carolina Baptist Office of Public Policy, Concerned Women for America, the South Carolina Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, the South Carolina Catholic Diocese, the South Carolina Victim Assistance Network, and a number of individuals from all parts of the state) held a press conference in the State House Lobby on Jan. 12 to announce their legislative agenda for 2022. Joining One Message were members of both the Senate and the House who have sponsored or pledged to help pass these bills into law.
Proposed legislation includes the following:
Save Women’s Sports Act — A bill that will prevent males who identify as females from competing against women in middle school, high school, and college.
Medical Rights of Conscience Act — Designed to protect health care professionals, certified and faith-based counselors, and other professionals from being forced to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.
Religion Is Essential Act — To protect the religious liberty of churches by declaring them to be free from the threat of having their services suspended by state, county, or municipal ordinances during a state of emergency.
The Abortion Reversal Pill Disclosure Act — To ensure that women who are being counseled to agree to a chemical abortion will be informed that there is a pill available to reverse the effects of the chemical abortion, if taken within 72 hours of ingesting the first pill. It would also make the abortion reversal pill more widely available in South Carolina.
The Compassionate Care Act (Medical Marijuana) — The goal here is to prevent this very bad bill from becoming law. Just as marijuana is a gateway drug to more dangerous addictions (including opioids), so-called medical marijuana will become the gateway legislation for the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Transparency and Integrity in Education Act — This bill would ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory and all of the variations that have arisen since the advent of the debate over this unbiblical teaching.
Other Pro-Life Bills that Ban or Severely Limit Abortion — There will be several bills originating in the House this session that will move South Carolina closer to ending abortion. They are not expected to get much traction because it is likely legislators will want to wait to see how the Supreme Court rules in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.
The South Carolina Baptist Office of Public Policy has been working with the Governor’s Task Force on Adoption, Foster Care, and Kinship Care. The goal is to improve the adoption and foster care system by removing unnecessary delays that hinder the uniting of willing families with children who are in need of adoption or foster care.
Please pray for our legislators, other state leaders, and for our South Carolina Baptist Legislative Appreciation Lunch. On Feb. 9, we will be providing lunch for our legislators to show our appreciation for their service to the people of South Carolina.