Nikki Haley and Jim DeMint Wage a War on Women in South Carolina

Editor's Note: With 38 days left until the presidential election, PolicyMic's Audrey Farber will be posting a daily update on the state of abortion rights in the U.S., covering legislative challenges to Roe v. Wade in all 50 states. So far, we've gotten updates on North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire. Check back in every day to keep track!

South Carolina:

South Carolina GOP Chair Chad Connelly is under the impression that the Democratic Party is under the impression that “abortions and taxpayer-funded birth control are rites of passage for every teenage girl -- sort of like the prom or a first car.”

South Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director Amanda Loveday responds without surprise, reminding voters of the time when “our female governor [Nikki Haley] called rape crisis centers special interests and a distraction,” which she then vetoed from the State budget. Haley made waves with a July veto of $500,000 intended for rape crisis centers, saying “these special add-on lines distract from the [Department of Health]’s broader mission of protecting South Carolina’s public health,” even though the state’s rate of sexual violence has been higher than the national average for the past thirty years. She also thinks that women’s issues and the party platforms regarding abortion just “don’t matter.”