March 4, 2025
Students For Life Action (SFLAction) made our position crystal clear to South Carolina leadership: the Human Life Protection Act deserves an immediate floor vote.
During February, we hit the ground running in the Palmetto State, knocking on 392 doors, translating to 381 conversations and resulting in 202 minds changed.
For five days, our team targeted Chairman Weston’s district by:
- Making appointments with House Judiciary Committee Members for Monday the 24th
- Developing texts, calls, patch-thru calls, and emails for Chairman Newton and Speaker Smith
- Putting out flyers at Catholic High School and Basketball Tournaments
- Putting flyers on cars in church parking lots on over 2,000 cars, three of those cars belonging to Representatives as identified by their license plates.
It seems South Carolina residents agreed with our efforts to protect Life. During this effort, students reported hardly any pushback from voters defending Chairman Newton. While door knocking, students ran into Rep, Herbkersman who thanked the students for what they were doing and assured them that both he and the Chairman were pro-life. A few minutes after the exchange, he flagged down students who were about 1.5 miles away and reiterated that he was “pro-life” and that the only reason that the chairman “was blocking the bill because it isn’t ready for the floor.” Rep. Herbkersam seemed determined to make sure we knew he was strongly pro-life.
What You May Have Missed:
Deploying boots on the ground in South Carolina had an impact on the cold shoulder treatment H. 3457 The Human Life Protection Act has been given, as it is being denied a House floor vote.
Due to the distribution of flyers at the churches, our message gained the attention of Chairman Newton who contacted several caucus members about our efforts. After this, our team returned to Columbia to meet with the Family Caucus and discuss the letter SFLA had drafted for the Family Caucus. Our letter stated that if the Human Life Protection Act does not get a hearing and vote, then members of the Family Caucus will not give their votes on other legislation going forward.
Additionally, our team met with Members of the House Judiciary Committee and their staff to discuss the Human Life Protection Act. On Monday evening the Speaker and the Chairman held a meeting. While we do not know the details, we do know that whatever was said was enough for the Family Caucus to hold off on the press conference until after the Caucus meeting on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, our team had several productive in-person meetings with Members. By the end of the morning, we successfully handed every single Republican House Member just before they went into the Republican Caucus meeting literature with the message to “prioritize life in the Caucus meeting.”
The Caucus meeting went two hours longer than scheduled and was quite contentious, allegedly spending more than an hour and a half debating the Human Life Protection bill. Without skipping a beat, the following day our team deployed to the Speakers district, targeting his neighborhood as well as his church with the message to prioritize life by bringing H. 3457 to the floor for a vote.
How SFLAction Efforts Changed Outcomes:
One thing is clear: every action that Students for Life Action has taken over the last month has added pressure on State House Members while increasing momentum in South Carolina for life.
Before we added pressure, conservatives in the State House had resigned themselves to the fact Rep. McCravy’s bill was dead. The Executive Director of the Family Caucus told our team that there was no chance the Human Life Protection Act would get a hearing. When Members heard that our students were on the ground in Chairman Westin’s district and that the Chairman was alarmed, the conservative members became energized and started whipping their own Caucus and calling the Speaker asking for a vote.
Currently, we are watching in anticipation to see when H. 3457 will be given a floor vote by the Chairman Westin.
We won’t stop fighting to end abortion in South Carolina. In the days and weeks to come, SFLAction will continue to push for leadership to give the Human Life Protection Act a floor vote. We must end abortion in SC, and this bill is a step in the right direction.