SPCDP Statement on Supreme Court Decision on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization

The Spartanburg County Democratic Party denounces the decision issued June 24, 2022 by the United States Supreme Court on the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, overturning Roe v Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.

Abortion is health care, and legal access to abortion is now in the hands of state lawmakers. We must rise up to vote lawmakers into office who will protect the rights of South Carolinians.

“Make no mistake, this decision will impact everyone in our state,” said Kathryn Harvey, Chair of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party. “It is most concerning the impact it will have on our communities of color, our LGBTQIA+ communities, our rural communities and others who already lack access to adequate healthcare in South Carolina. North Carolina may be the only accessible state when bans go into effect in South Carolina, and even that could be compromised. This is deeply, deeply personal for me.“

Governor McMaster has already filed a motion to put the six week abortion ban into effect as soon as possible, but an outright abortion ban is poised to be approved when the General Assembly reconvenes between July and November, 2022.

Spartanburg is fortunate to have representation in the fight.

Spartanburg County Democratic Party Executive Committeewoman and House District 31 Representative Rosalyn-Henderson Myers is among the 12 House members (7 Republicans, 5 Democrats) appointed by Speaker Smith to the ad hoc committee that will "study and receive public testimony on the impact of this matter in South Carolina." With this study and testimony, the committee will consider language that will be included in H.5399, a bill that was introduced as the placeholder for whatever action they may want to take starting as early as next month.

‘I was selected (to the committee) to give some diversity for my pro-choice stance," Henderson-Myers said. "I am going to use that as a sounding board to speak to the rights of women, and that women ought to do what they want with their bodies as they choose.’

Our state has some of the worst reproductive health outcomes in the country, and the majority of South Carolinians do not want lawmakers to interfere with their personal decisions about pregnancy and parenting. So, we must vote them out.

You have an opportunity to choose your democratic candidate for US State Senate in the June 28 Primary Runoff, and showing up to the ballot box on November 8 in the state of South Carolina has never been more important. Our Democratic Candidate for Governor, Joe Cunningham, has already committed to vetoing the ban once he’s in office.

There are also immediate opportunities to support statewide advocacy efforts through the Women’s Rights & Network (WREN), a nonpartisan, nonprofit with the mission to build a movement to advance the health, economic well-being, and rights of women, girls, gender expansive people, and their families. Organize for outreach efforts, donate and tell your legislators to support S.1348, the Reproductive Health Rights Act, a bill that would repeal existing restrictions on abortion care and affirm the rights to contraception, in vitro fertilization, sex education, and all other forms of reproductive health care.

Democracy is an action, so please consider mobilizing with the Democratic Party in Spartanburg and across the state. We need volunteers, poll workers, and future candidates to engage with us. And we need all voices to be heard at the ballot box this November.

Spartanburg County Democratic Party

Spartanburgdemocrats.com

Pass the Clementa Pinckney Hate Crime Bill 3620.

The last 23 years of bigotry and hatred should be enough reason to pass the hate crime bill.

There has been a barrage of hate crimes against those of African descent during this period, yet there has been no empathetic or corrective response to be seen within the legislature here in the south.

In 1998 James Byrd was beaten, stripped naked, tied to a truck, and dragged by three Caucasian men down a road, until he was dead and decapitated.

It should have been enough!

In 2011 James Craig Anderson was attacked by a group of Caucasian males. They'd harassed other individuals of African descent that same day before beating James Anderson in a motel parking lot, while shouting “white power.” When James tried to stand up after the beating, the group ran over him with a pick-up truck and killed him. They were convicted of one count of conspiracy.

It should have been enough!

Dylan Roof (an admitted white supremacist) killed 9 individuals of African descent inside a church during bible study, which included the death of State Senator Clementa Pickney.

Payton Gendron (2022) Buffalo, NY, killed 10 individuals of African descent, with the intent to kill more, citing the “White Supremacist Replacement Theory” as his reason.

This list barely touches the centuries of the brutal hate crimes that have plagued the African American communities in the south, as well as the rest of America.

From 2010-2018 only 100 hate crimes against those of African descent have been pursued by federal prosecutors.

It should have been enough!

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and the Senate have yet to honestly consider the signing of the Clementa Pinckney Hate Crime Bill 3620.

Sen. Massey, Sen. Adams, and Sen. Grooms have also shown their true colors, as they vocalize their intentions, which have not been in favor of the bill. Their flag of stall tactics, rhetoric and blatant disregard for the African American community flies high!

Today, I call on all of those who truly care, and those of us who have experienced, and understand the bigotry and racism in the south and America, to stand up! Will you continue to live on your knees, or will you stand and fight with all that you have, from the gutter of systematic oppression, to the government of bigotry?

Dr. D. A. Dennis, Sr., Ph.D.

Spartanburg County Democratic Party Secretary

Gun Control

Where do we even begin?

As the new chair of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party, I am penning this today from a place of deep belief that this community, like many communities, wants what is best for one another, for our community members of color, for our children, for each other.

And while we may disagree politically on some things, when it comes to protecting the people we love, 80-90% of us agree that violence by firearms—the number one cause of death in youth—would be reduced if we passed key legislation around guns.

In the midst of crafting a statement about the Buffalo massacre I quickly had to pivot to the atrocity that happened in Uvalde.

Just last year, all six of South Carolina’s Republican Representatives voted against the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would mandate background checks before gun sales. Each one of them needs to answer why.

10 victims — Roberta A. Drury, Margus D. Morrison, Andre Mackneil, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney, Heyward Patterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, Ruth Whitfield murdered in Buffalo at Tops Supermarket. This is a hate crime. But in the state of South Carolina it wouldn’t be charged as such because our legislature refused to pass the Clementa Pinckney Hate Crime Bill 3620, making us one of only two states in the nation to not have a law condemning hate crimes, even after the 2015 massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

21 victims - Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, Alithia Ramirez, Amerie Jo Garza, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, Eliana “Ellie” Garcia, Eva Mireles, Eliahana Cruz Torres, Irma Garcia, Jackie Cazares, Jailah Silguero, Jayce Luevanos, Jose Flores, Layla Salazar, Maite Rodriguez, Makenna Lee Elrod, Miranda Mathis, Nevaeh Bravo, Rojelio Torres, Tess Marie Mata, Uziyah Garcia, Xavier Javier Lopez, murdered at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas.

On June 6th I will start my 40th trip around the sun. And I have had the distinct pleasure of living a very enriched life that began in Spartanburg in 1982, took me to NYC in 2000, and brought me back here five years ago.

On April 20, 1999 students and educators were gunned down at Columbine High School in Colorado, six months before I left for college in New York. Since then, I have lived through Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Parkland, Pulse Nightclub, Charleston AME, Buffalo, Uvalde, and the list goes on.

In 2012, I was the Marketing Director for Sesame Street when the Sandy Hook massacre occurred, and we sent our muppets to Connecticut (a short trip from our HQ in New York) to comfort the students, educators and families just days after the incident. When our team on the ground came back they were fundamentally changed by what they had experienced. And that was just the aftermath.

The Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, signed into law in January 2013, defines a mass killing as one resulting in at least three victims, excluding the perpetrator.

By the end of 2019 there were 417 mass shootings, by the end of 2020, there had been 611, and by the end of 2021, 693, according to the Gun Violence Archive.[35] By mid-May 2021 there were 10 mass shootings a week on average; by mid-May 2022, there was a total of 198 mass shootings in the first 19 weeks of the year, which represents 11 mass shootings a week.[36]

The need for our lawmakers to listen to survivors and those directly impacted, which is a number growing everyday…is so great. Over 3400 kids were killed by guns in 2020, surpassing car crashes as the #1 cause of death for the first time.

Background checks and a ban on high capacity magazines are the bare minimum to protect every day people from open massacre in the event of an active shooter. It’s literally the least we can do.

These pieces of legislation have been on the table but none have passed:

A House-passed bill, HR 1446, backed by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, would close what's known as the "Charleston loophole," which allows some licensed gun sales to go through before a required background check is done.

Specifically, the legislation would increase the amount of time, from three business days to a minimum of 10 business days, that a federal firearms licensee must wait to receive a completed background check prior to transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person.

Even bills with bipartisan support can't pass the Senate. Another bill, HR 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, would expand background checks for all firearm sales or transfers in the country. Currently, background checks are not required for gun sales and transfers by unlicensed and private sellers.

These bills have failed because our elected officials are being held hostage by the gun lobby that funds their reelection campaigns. They value staying in power over saving children’s lives, and we are in turn being held hostage by our elected officials.

If our representatives won't pass legislation that Americans resoundingly agree on, then we must remove them from office. You have two chances to exercise that right in 2022.

Vote early from May 31-June 10 at the County Administration Building.

Get out the vote on June 14 and come back and do it again in November. Check your precinct location at vote411.org.

Join me at Stump the Yard on June 6th at the FR8yard to hear from Republican and Democratic Candidates running in the June 14th Primaries.

Join the Spartanburg County Democratic Party for our monthly meeting on June 8th at TK Gregg Community Center.

Call and email your senator and representative today.

South Carolina US Senators:

Lindsey Graham, 202 224 5972

Tim Scott, 202 224 6121

US Representative, SC 4th District

William Timmons 202 225 6030

You can find your representative at www.house.gov.

Kathryn Harvey

Community Member & Spartanburg County Democratic Party Chair