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South Carolina’s near-total abortion ban fails to advance out of subcommittee

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South Carolina’s near-total abortion ban fails to advance out of subcommittee


The State Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee continued discussions about Senate Bill 323 – a proposed near-total abortion ban.

The controversial bill creates new definitions for human life, contraception and makes abortion a felony. The bill also removes current exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomaly written into the state’s six-week ban.

On Tuesday, a motion to send a favorable report on Senate Bill 323 to the full medical affairs committee failed 3-2, with four members abstaining.

READ MORE | “SC looks at most restrictive abortion bill in the US as opponents keep pushing limits.”

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The motion came after three hours of discussion of possible amendments to the bill. Some proposals sought to remove criminal and civil protections for pregnant mothers, or return to state law that took precedent before Roe v. Wade became precedent in the 1970s.

Those amendments failed to pass.

The bill’s author, State Sen. Richard Cash, chairman of the Medical Affairs Subcommittee, defended the bill as written – claiming abortion is the number one issue in the state.

“I believe it’s our first duty as elected officials to bring an end to it, to protect innocent human life, life, liberty, property,” Cash said. “The rights are in that order. It is our duty to protect innocent life.”

READ MORE | “Second hearing scheduled regarding SC’s controversial near-total abortion ban bill.”

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State Sen. Billy Garrett, one of the bill’s original sponsors, abstained. At one point in the meeting, he said he wants to protect the unborn. However, he was against criminalizing mothers.

“I’m extremely in favor of saving babies’ lives,” Garrett said. “I’ll always be that way. My constituents are that way. They asked me to be that way, and I am, but I have never intended, nor should any of us ever intend to, to punish or be punitive towards our moms.”

Sen. Tom Fernandez and Sen. Cash voted in support of the bill. Sens. Deon Tedder, Ronnie Saab and Brad Hutto voted against it. Sens. Garrett, Matt Leber, Thomas Corbin and Jeff Zell abstained.

“This is an enormous victory for reproductive freedom and for the people of South Carolina,” said Dr. Amalia Luxardo, CEO of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN). “This outcome was made possible because thousands of South Carolinians stood up, spoke out, and refused to allow their rights and their futures to be stripped away.”



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Nebraska targeting former South Carolina coach Lonnie Teasley

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Nebraska targeting former South Carolina coach Lonnie Teasley


Nebraska is targeting ex-South Carolina offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley for an offensive staff role, according to the Omaha World-Herald’s Sam McKewon. The role itself is still to be determined.

Teasley spent three seasons as the Gamecocks’ offensive line coach. He had been with the program since 2021, serving as an offensive analyst. He assumed on-field coaching duties for the program in 2022.

Teasley was let go by South Carolina in October, ending his time with the program.

In addition to his coaching role, he was a strong recruiter for the Gamecocks. He most recently landed Darius Gray, the top interior offensive line recruit in the 2026 class. He was also able to land four-star offensive tackle Kamari Blair for the class as well.

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Nebraska football has undergone several changes on offense over the last couple of days. They hired former Georgia Tech offensive line coach Geep Wade for the same position on Saturday, following the firing of Donovan Raiola.

The program is making sweeping changes on both sides of the football. Adding Teasley to the staff would be important for the program, which needs to be better prepared across all areas.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes and opinions.





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South Carolina measles outbreak is ‘accelerating,’ driving hundreds into quarantine

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South Carolina measles outbreak is ‘accelerating,’ driving hundreds into quarantine


The health department deployed mobile health clinics to the area to provide MMR shots, but few people in the community took advantage. “I can tell you that a relatively small number of doses was administered at each of the mobile health unit clinics that we offered,” Bell said.

No other vaccination clinics are planned, according to the department’s website.

People who are not vaccinated are almost always infected after they’re exposed to the virus; measles is the most contagious known virus in the world and can hang in the air for hours.

The current spread in South Carolina is occurring at several schools and a church in Spartanburg County, Bell said, with 254 people under a three-week quarantine. It takes 21 days for symptoms to occur after an exposure.

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But with the ongoing spread in schools, some students who remain unvaccinated are now in a second 21-day quarantine since the beginning of the school year, Bell said. She did not have an exact number of kids in their second quarantine, but said it’s not a “significant proportion.”

While the quarantine includes weekends and holidays, 42 days is a significant amount of time away from the classroom.

The spread of measles is not isolated to South Carolina. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a total of 1,912 measles cases so far in 2025.

The majority of cases have occurred in unvaccinated children and teenagers.

Outbreaks in the Western U.S. are ongoing: 176 in Arizona and 115 in Utah, according to state health officials. One of the Utah cases occurred at a child care facility with a high school in Salt Lake County.

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The infected person was at the facility all day, every day last week (Dec. 1 through Dec. 5), the Utah Department of Health & Human Services said.

And health officials in Montezuma County, Colorado, located on the border of Utah and Arizona, reported an unvaccinated child had been diagnosed with measles. The child had no known connection to any other cases and hadn’t traveled outside of the state.

“The lack of a clear source of infection suggests that unidentified measles cases may be occurring in or traveling” through the area, investigators said.

Symptoms of measles can include:

  • Headache, fever that may spike to over 104 degrees
  • Cough, runny nose
  • Red, watery eyes
  • Tiny white spots inside the mouth
  • A rash that begins on the scalp and travels down to the neck, trunk, arms and legs.

Approximately 11% to 12% of measles cases require hospitalization. Three people, including two young girls, have died in the U.S. this year.

MMR vaccines, given in two doses around a child’s first and fifth birthdays, provide 97% protection against the virus.



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Over 250 people quarantined in South Carolina as measles outbreak rages

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Over 250 people quarantined in South Carolina as measles outbreak rages


The quarantine period for measles is 21 days from the exposure, which is the maximum incubation period before the tell-tale rash appears. Measles is highly infectious, with up to 90 percent of unvaccinated or otherwise vulnerable people contracting the virus upon exposure. People infected with measles are infectious from four days before the rash appears to four days after its onset.

The outbreak is occurring in the northern region of South Carolina, with many cases identified in Spartanburg County, which contains Inman, as well as Greenville County. Both counties have low vaccination rates. For the 2024–2025 school year, only 90 percent of Spartanburg students were vaccinated, while Greenville’s vaccination rate was 92.4 percent. Those numbers are well below the 95 percent target needed to halt community transmission.

The two counties’ low vaccination rates are coupled with high rates of religious exemptions. Spartanburg has the state’s highest rate, with 8.2 percent of students exempt from the school vaccination requirement based on religious beliefs. Neighboring Greenville has a religious vaccination exemption rate of 5.3 percent.

Of the 111 outbreak cases, 105 were unvaccinated, three were partially vaccinated, two had an unknown status, and one case was fully vaccinated.

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On a national scale, vaccination rates have declined overall amid misinformation spread by anti-vaccine activists, including current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As such, measles cases are at a 33-year high, with nearly 2,000 cases this year and 46 outbreaks.

This post was updated to correct the year the US eliminated measles. 



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