COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate stood up to their party and prevented a total abortion ban in their state last year. In return, they lost their jobs.
Voters removed Sens. Sandy Senn, Penny Gustafson And Katrina Shealy left office during the sparsely contested June primaries, completely abandoning the Republican wing of the five-member “Sister Senators,” a female contingent that included two Democrats and who joined in opposing the abortion ban.
For Republicans, the departure of Senn, Gustafson and Shealy likely means there will be no women left in the Senate majority party when the next session begins in 2025. It could also mean women won’t hold power for decades in the fiercely conservative state, where they have long struggled to get into the legislature.
How scarce has the political influence of women been in South Carolina historically? Tiny portraits of every woman who has ever served in the 170-seat General Assembly in its 250-year history fit on a poster hanging just outside the governor’s office.
The sudden departure of Republican women poses a potential power problem, because the Senate allocates power and responsibility to the majority party based on seniority. Half of the members in the GOP-dominated state were elected in 2012 or earlier, so it likely won’t be until the 2040s that a future Republican woman could hold the leadership or chair of a committee.
“Women, someone else will have to step up. Someone else will have to come and put things right,” Senn said in her farewell speech on June 26.
Unless a woman wins a race in November in a district dominated by the other party, there will be only two women in South Carolina’s 46-member Senate when the 126th session begins in January. No other state in the country would have fewer women in the upper chamber, according to the Center of American Women in Politics. Women make up 55% of the state’s registered voters.
That gap should be alarming to everyone in South Carolina, Sen. said. Tameika Isaac Devinewho took her seat in a special election this year and became the sixth member of the Sister Senators. Next year, Devine and fellow Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews will likely be the only women in the chamber.
“As much empathy as men can have, they haven’t had babies. They didn’t have hysterectomies. They haven’t had to deal with the health care issues or the community issues that we deal with every day,” Devine said.
Instead of a complete ban on abortion, South Carolina ultimately opted for a ban once cardiac activity is detected, usually after six weeks of pregnancy.
The three sister senators—followed by two Democrats—then rose to international prominence. Cover stories and television appearances culminated in their receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for people who risk their careers for the greater good.
But that attention had another benefit. Fierce abortion foes took out billboards and sent out mailers in their districts calling the three Republicans “baby killers.”
“When you’re on CNN and you’re on MSNBC and you’re on the front page of the New York Times and the front page of the Washington Post, you’re repeatedly sticking your finger in the eye of a lot of conservative people,” said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey.
Massey said abortion wasn’t the only issue facing the Republican sister senators. “Their opponents have done a good job of portraying them as weak and out of touch,” he said.
Voters in Lexington County, a conservative suburb west of Columbia, said they could not trust Shealy after electing her three times.
“She lost me on the abortion vote,” Alexis Monts said. “And I don’t think I have to just pick a woman who has equal representation.”
Historically, things have been worse in the South Carolina Senate for women. There were no women from 2009 to 2013, when Shealy was first elected. Her goals were to protect veterans, women, families, children and other vulnerable groups.
In her 12 years in the Senate, Shealy has had a major impact. Thirty-eight of her bills have passed, including ones that would require an investigation into any suspected infant death, a ban on minimum wages for people with disabilities and require the state to come up with a plan to address rising cases of dementia. No senator has passed more legislation in recent years.
“We’ve helped children, we’ve helped families, we’ve helped the disabled. We’ve helped women and we’ve helped veterans,” Shealy said after her second-round loss. “And what I’m so worried about is who’s going to do that next?”
Shealy has also made small differences. The ladies’ room in the Senate office building was gray and drab when she arrived. She brought her own art and trinkets and filled them with lotions and other items.
It was all an attempt to drag change into a General Assembly where women are often minimized and forgotten. On Shealy’s first day in 2013, the session opened with, “Gentlemen of the Senate, please rise.”
Disappointed, the leadership changed it to ‘Lords and Lady of the Senate’. Shealy said this was also disparaging, as it suggested there were different levels of membership. Sessions have now been opened to ‘Members of the Senate’.
Shealy often looked at the walls of the Senate chambers and saw no woman honored with a portrait.
“You can see how hard it is by some of the comments that some of the people in the lobby have made. Things like, ‘Women are not fit to serve,’ that ‘God doesn’t want us here,'” Shealy said during the abortion debate last year. “Well, God is pretty smart. If God didn’t want us here, I’m sure we wouldn’t be here.”
A group called SC Women in Leadership is in its sixth year encouraging women to run for office. They train Democrats and Republicans to become better candidates in local and national races and support them when elected. But they said it will take time to get more women into power. Shealy didn’t win her first race. Neither does fellow Republican Gustafson.
Each of the Republican sister senators said the GOP is tougher on women because of conservative ideas about gender roles. A man finds problems. A woman complains. A man is forceful and decisive. A woman is bossy and pushy.
“It can be tiring sometimes. I felt like I was always judged in a way that my Democrats weren’t,” Gustafson said after her first loss.
As she gave her farewell speech, Shealy brought out the $36,000 lantern trophy that the Profile in Courage group awards to the winners. Her four original Sister Senators – Matthews only, returning next session – walked to help her as she struggled a bit to get it out of the case.
“Here it is. And it’s beautiful. And I’m proud of it. I’m proud that I lost this Senate race just to get this, because I stood up for what was right. I stood up for women. stood up for children. I stood up for South Carolina. And all these sister senators and I are not ashamed,” Shealy said.
