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ALPHA STRATEGIES  | LEGISLATIVE SESSION UPDATE  |  WEEK 14

Week of April 13, 2026  |  South Carolina General Assembly, 126th Session

South Carolina lawmakers came back from spring break with a to-do list the size of a phone book and exactly four weeks left to work through it.

Welcome to Week 14. The sprinting has officially started.

Last week, House members were on furlough while the Senate held a perfunctory session. This week, both chambers gaveled in with purpose. Bills that had been parked on the calendar for months started moving. New legislation was filed that signals where the fights are headed in 2027, and one bill with significant statewide implications cleared a subcommittee and picked up speed.

Here is what happened, and what is coming.

THE HEADLINE THAT WROTE ITSELF

S.1095, the “Unborn Child Protection Act,” is the bill that dominated Week 14 at the State House. It earned the attention.

Introduced April 1 and referred the same day to Senate Medical Affairs, the bill quickly became one of the most closely watched pieces of legislation of the week. A Medical Affairs subcommittee took testimony on April 15, and the full committee is set to reconvene on Tuesday, April 21. From introduction to active committee consideration in two weeks. That is not a slow-roll. That is a signal.

Here is what the bill would do. It replaces the current six-week ban with a prohibition beginning at clinically diagnosable pregnancy, which is earlier than the existing heartbeat threshold. It removes existing exceptions for rape, incest, and fatal fetal anomalies. It adds mifepristone and misoprostol to Schedule IV controlled substances. Penalties vary by offense: performing an abortion or administering an abortion-inducing drug with intent to cause an unlawful termination carries up to twenty years in prison and a $100,000 fine. Possessing, mailing, or distributing those drugs carries up to five years and a $5,000 fine. A pregnant woman who self-induces using an abortion-inducing drug faces a misdemeanor, not a felony, with a maximum of two years and a $1,000 fine. The bill also creates new wrongful death claims and removes Medicaid family planning funds from abortion providers.

The full Senate Medical Affairs Committee reconvenes Tuesday, April 21.

THE BILL THAT ACTUALLY CROSSED THE FINISH LINE

While S.1095 was drawing crowds to the hearing rooms, H.4756, the South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act, did something more decisive: it cleared both chambers and is headed to the Governor.

On April 15, the House voted 77 to 31 to concur in the Senate’s amendments. The bill requires multi-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities at public schools and universities to be designated and used according to biological sex, mandates single-user accommodation options, restricts overnight lodging by sex at school-authorized events, and creates private causes of action for violations. The Senate amended the House version to address operational concerns at large university campuses. The House accepted those changes without sending the bill to conference. It now awaits the Governor’s signature.

WHAT TO WATCH IN WEEK 15 (APRIL 21)

The Senate budget hits the floor. Full chamber debate on the 2026-27 spending plan begins Tuesday. In South Carolina, the real policy fights often surface not in the bill itself but in provisos added at the last minute on the floor.

S.1095 returns to full Senate Medical Affairs on Tuesday. A committee vote is expected. Whether it advances, stalls, or gets amended further will tell you a great deal about where the votes are.

Twelve legislative days remain. May 14 at 5:00 p.m. is sine die. In the South Carolina General Assembly, a lot can happen in twelve days. And a lot can die quietly in the same span.

A WORD ON WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

What you just read is the public record. The full picture is different.

The full picture is the conversation that happened before the vote was called, the proviso being drafted right now that will appear in the budget without a public hearing, and the procedural move that will determine whether a bill lives or quietly disappears in the last week of session. That is the intelligence that changes how you operate.

That is the work Alpha Strategies does. We track what is moving, what is stalling, what is being negotiated in rooms that do not appear on any public schedule, and what it means for the organizations that cannot afford to be last to know.

The final four weeks belong to those who are prepared. The clock does not wait.

If that is a gap in your strategy, let’s close it.

Alpha Strategies tracks South Carolina’s legislative process week by week to help organizations understand not just what happened, but what it means and what is coming next.

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