All Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries — Here's why

The South Carolina state Senate will likely only have two women members next year after all three sitting Republican women lost their primaries.

Sens. Penry Gustafson, Sandy Senn, and Katrina Shealy each lost their recent primary after joining Democrats last year in blocking a proposed total abortion ban. The three teamed up the two Democratic women in the Senate to form the “Sister Senators" contingent, narrowly preventing the legislation from passing. South Carolina now has a six-week abortion ban instead.

“Women, somebody else is going to have to stand up," Senn said in her exit address. "Somebody else is going to have to come and make things right."

Now, unless a woman Democrat manages to win in a majority-conservative district, there will only be two women in the state's Senate out of 46 members — the lowest in the nation, according to the Center of American Women in Politics, despite women being the majority of registered voters in the state at 55 percent.

"I’m proud of losing this senate race just to get this because I stood up for the right thing," Shealy said in her own farewell statement. "I stood up for women. I stood up for children. I stood up for South Carolina. And all these sister senators with me, we’re not ashamed."

Shealy has spent 12 years in the South Carolina Senate, during which 48 of her bills have passed — more than any other legislator in recent years. Such legislation included bills requiring a review of every suspicious child death, banning subminimum wages for people with disabilities, and facilitating further research and support for those with dementia.

“We've helped children and helped families and helped the disabled. We've helped women and we've helped veterans," Shealy continued. "And what I am so worried about is who is going to do that now."