By james art 
These are the bills and legislative hearing that we are observed in the State House of South Carolina for the week of February 10, 2025:
Another attack on trans youth and their families
This Thursday morning, MPs will discuss a bill that will harm transgender young people. If you would like to testify, please join us at the Senate Senior Subcommerce Thursday 13 February at 10 am In Room 307 of the Grace building (1101 Pendleton St., Columbia). The hearing is already deferred once this week, so be sure to check the schedule of the Senate meetings for updates.
The Senate Bill 240 will direct the courts and state agencies to relate to preferential treatment of parents, guardians and foster care that adheres to the definitions of gender and gender applied by the state, denying the existence of children who do not meet gender. In custody, abuse and accommodation cases, government agencies will be obliged to consider it a “positive factor” when adults force children to comply with the state definition of “biological sex”.
S. 240 is similar to H. 3094, which was submitted to the house in January. This would threaten trance children and open the door to harmful practices such as conversion therapy, which the American Medical Association has condemned as unethical and discriminatory.
Our South Carolina United coalition partners for justice and equality have created a form to help you start writing letters to the legislators as opposed to this bill:
Write your senators
A new ban on abortion in works
On February 6, Senator Richard Cash of Piedmont introduced an extreme bill to ban abortion, S. 323. In addition to the ban on abortion before the current “fetal heart rhythm” and determining a 30-year sentence for those who are found guilty as ” Supporting and supporting the assistance and “support and assistance and assistance and assistance”, the bill will delete exceptions to survivors of rape and incest, as well as exceptions to pregnancies with a fatal fetal abnormal. This bill would put people in danger and force them to give birth in terrifying circumstances.
The bill was referred to the Senate Medical Affairs Committee, but is not yet scheduled to hear. Commission members and their contact information are available here.
Most southern Carolini do not support a 6-week abortion ban, let alone a common ban such as the proposed senatorial money. Medical experts have testified that existing bans are already threatening life, making it difficult to get safe, legal abortions, as well as contribute to the drainage of brain in the medical field of South Carolina. One of the reasons why the end, unpopular legislation is progressing is that the lawmakers of the state were “safe” guerrilla regions, which means that the more outer opinions of primary voters ultimately determine who occupies a position.
We all have to show ourselves and talk against attacks against bodily autonomy and access to medical attention. If you want to help distribute the word about continuing damage to the existing abortion ban, episode 4 of While breathing Podcast has an OB/Gyn and a marriage pair who talks about the ways in which the law has hurt them.
Diversity, justice and involvement under attack
The latest programs for targeting diversity, justice and inclusion (DEI) accounts were 3927 at House 3927, presented on February 6 with 69 sponsors at the State House of Representatives. This bill would ban the programs of DEI in all public agencies, public schools, colleges and universities K-12.
This time, legislators define the DEI programs as “encouraging policies or procedures designed or applied in relation to race, gender, color, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation for any purpose, except to ensure that the applicable judicial order or country or country or federal law. “This is a broad ban that could threaten everything from medical research to teacher recruitment and training programs.
This bill is similar to another introduced from this session that would threaten to reduce funding in colleges and universities (H. 3572) and another, which is aimed at both K-12 and higher education (H. 3219). As this bill has more sponsors, including leaders of influential committees, we predict that this one can receive a hearing at the Committee on Education and Public Affairs. You can check the Commission’s website to see who is sitting in this committee and contacting the legislators in your area.
If you are interested in getting involved more in the fight for academic freedom, consider filling our volunteer form and let us know which questions are relevant to you most. The members of our advocacy team will contact the opportunities to show up and get involved in the fight:
Volunteer with us
Private school vouchers on the go
Last week, the Senate adopted a bill (S. 62) to divert state funds from the K-12 private schools, including religious. He is now moving to the house where he was appointed to the Committee on Education and Public Affairs.
The bill is not yet scheduled for the hearing of the Chamber Committee, but we envisage several adhesive points in the upcoming debate. On the one hand, some domestic Republicans will insist on making the program universal, which means that it will subsidize private school training even for the most rich families.
Another line of guilt we have seen in other countries that experiment with vouchers is that rural voters, including Republicans, largely oppose vouchers for private schools because they disproportionately harm the budgets of rural public schools. To quote from Prof. Josh Cowen in a recent episode of our podcast for vouchers’ trains:
“It is rural voters that cannot withstand these vouchers schemes and have retained these things to become a law … Republican opposition from members represents rural communities.”
If you have not yet written to your legislators about the harms of school vouchers, the South Carolina Education Association has a form to help you get started:
Write your legislators
For more information, listen to episode 12 of While breathing And see our publication on the Blog Truth for School Vouchers.