Here’s what to keep an eye on this week in the South Carolina State House:
Defend trans youth
H. 4624, a bill prohibiting physicians from providing medically necessary healthcare for transgender youth, has passed the House and could be taken up by a Senate committee any day now. As currently written, the bill would also force teachers and staff at public schools to out transgender kids and would ban the use of public funds to cover transition care even for adults.
We were disgusted to see members of the South Carolin House of Representatives disregard the expert testimony of pediatricians and the personal pleas of trans kids’ family members who traveled to Columbia to testify in January. But we still have a chance to stop this harmful legislation before it harms vulnerable children.
Want to take action? Our coalition partners at SC United for Justice & Equality have set up an action page that will connect you with your state senator. Please ask them to vote no on H. 4624. The S.C. Women’s Rights & Empowerment Network (WREN) also has an action page here.
Pro-birth? Prove it
Last year, extremist lawmakers and their hand-picked judges passed and upheld a draconian 6-week abortion ban, forcing their way into doctors’ offices, dining rooms, and religious sanctuaries.
A recently filed bill, S. 874 (“South Carolina Pro Birth Accountability Act”), would require the state to financially compensate South Carolinians who would choose to terminate their pregnancy if not for the ban.
On Wednesday, February 7, at 10 a.m. in Room 209 of the Gressette Office Building, a Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee will take up the bill for consideration. The meeting agenda is available here.
Medical marijuana
A bill allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana, S. 423, came up short on a Special Order vote last week. It could still pass this year.
Medical marijuana has been a long time coming in South Carolina. Bills like this have failed again and again for more than a decade. Meanwhile medical patients with chronic pain and nausea have suffered needlessly or been forced to seek marijuana illegally.
As a reminder, you can look up contact information for your state House and Senate members by entering your address on the South Carolina Legislature website. This bill is currently in the Senate.
Prison laborers' minimum wage bill advances
A bill guaranteeing the federal minimum wage to incarcerated workers, S. 1001, received a favorable report from a Senate Corrections & Penology subcommittee last week. It has now been referred to the full committee, which has not scheduled a debate on the bill yet.
The bill comes shortly after the Associated Press published a stunning report on widespread abuses in the U.S. prison labor system, which contributes to the supply chains of companies including McDonald’s, Walmart, and Coca-Cola.
We do not yet have a complete picture of incarcerated labor in South Carolina, and data can be hard to come by. A 2017 report from the Prison Policy Initiative found that South Carolina incarcerated workers in state-owned businesses were paid between 35 cents and $1.80 an hour.
We’re keeping an eye on this bill. It remains unclear how much of the $7.25 hourly wage would actually go to incarcerated workers. We testified in the subcommittee hearing last week to highlight the big picture: We believe that incarcerated workers are in fact workers, and that the basic protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act should apply to them. For more information, see our "friend of the court” brief in Scott et al. v. Baltimore County, highlighting the Jim Crow roots of our convict labor system.
