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A leading anti-abortion group has picked South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster as its first gubernatorial endorsement in next year\u2019s elections, part of a broader strategy to seed top state jobs with abortion opponents as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to give states more power over the issue.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, officials from the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List will travel to Greenville to give their endorsement to McMaster, now in his second full term. Their early backing of the Republican even before he draws a primary challenger who is actively raising money could be intended as a prophylactic to deter anyone from challenging him from the right.<\/p>\n
In an interview ahead of the event, Marjorie Dannenfelser, the organization\u2019s president, told The Associated Press that McMaster\u2019s key roles in defending both Mississippi\u2019s abortion law and South Carolina\u2019s new restrictions on abortion make him “a hero in defending life.”<\/p>\n
Mississippi\u2019s 2018 law would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state\u2019s sole abortion clinic is challenging the measure\u2019s legality, arguing that it unconstitutionally restricts access to abortion. Mississippi\u2019s Republican attorney general, in turn, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.<\/p>\n
The high court is expected to hear the case this fall, with a decision next year.<\/p>\n
Last month, McMaster led a coalition of a dozen Republican governors submitting an amicus brief supporting Mississippi\u2019s law. Arguing that the issue of abortion is best left to the states, McMaster\u2019s attorneys wrote that citizens can vote out state lawmakers with whom they disagree over abortion policies, but are less able to make federal entities comply with the people\u2019s will.<\/p>\n
The high court\u2019s landmark abortion decisions have “upended the careful balance that the Constitution strikes between the Federal Government and the States,” they wrote, in arguments similar to the ones made by Mississippi\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n
McMaster has also had to contend with related litigation in his own state, although it\u2019s been put on hold pending the Mississippi decision. Earlier this year, the governor signed the “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act,” which requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for cardiac activity, which can now be detected about six weeks after conception. If it\u2019s found, the abortion can be performed only if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or the mother\u2019s life was in danger.<\/p>\n
Planned Parenthood attorneys sued immediately, and the entire law has been blocked from taking effect during the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
“The right to life is the most precious of rights and the most fragile,” McMaster said then, in a statement. “We must protect life at every opportunity, regardless of cost or inconvenience.”<\/p>\n
About a dozen other states have passed similar or more restrictive abortion bans, which could take effect if the justices use Mississippi\u2019s Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade.<\/p>\n
“Footing on the abortion issue may start to shift very dramatically to the state level depending on the Dobbs decision,” Dannenfelser told AP.<\/p>\n
Although McMaster is the first governor to get the group\u2019s backing for next year\u2019s election cycle, Dannenfelser said more such endorsements will come now that groups like hers have successfully campaigned to confirm “justices who would hear a case that could relax the control that the court has, in making abortion law in the states.”<\/p>\n
“Endorsing a governor like Gov. McMaster is part of the culminating point of the whole movement,” she added.<\/p>\n