Pro-life Students Attacks Continue on ‘Sister Senators’

A pro-life student group, “Students for Life Action,” placed moving boxes outside of the three South Carolina GOP women state senators’ offices that were ousted in the June primaries.

“Today, we dropped off moving boxes to help them get their stuff out of their offices,” a post on the website read. “The “Senator Sisters,” Katrina Shealy, Sandy Senn and Penry Gustafason, should’ve taken the Pro-Life Generation seriously when they sided with South Carolina House democrats to shut down lifesaving bills.”

Shealy, R-Lexington, Senn, R-Charleston, and Gustafson, R-Kershaw, were all knocked out of their seats due to what many presume was their effort to block a near total abortion ban in 2023.

Throughout their campaigns, all three women were attacked on their decision to block the ban, and their recognition of blocking it, including accepting the JFK Profiles in Courage Award.

The Students for Life Action group was one of many that campaigned against the Sister Senators. The group wrote on their website that they used “grassroots initiatives and pressure” to oust the women and replace them with “pro-life” senators.

Shealy said this is “the most juvenile action ever taken.”

“This is a sad situation. This victory lap they’re taking would never be allowed if they were men who lost. I am so angry. I will work as hard as possible, as long as possible to defeat every one of these crazy people who want to squash women’s rights and send us back to 1920,” Shealy wrote in a text to The State.

“And we hope anyone watching will think twice about betraying the pro-life movement – it’s not worth it,” the post read.

The post said the group sent out 37,407 mailers, 110,641 text messages, made 47,011 phone calls, and knocked on 2,572 doors.

The group Students for Life had campaigned against Shealy long before the June 2024 primaries. Shealy said they put fliers on windshields in Shealy’s church parking lot. The fliers said Shealy Senn, Gustafson and others were not pro-life and were “baby killers.”

The other GOP senators, Gustafson and Senn, also faced a multitude of attacks. Gustafson’s opponent, Allen Blackmon, campaigned at large churches where he talked about his pro-life values. Senn’s opponent, state Rep. Matt Leber, went after her in their heated race, and abortion was a central theme.

“It doesn’t matter how many times I say I’m pro life they turn my words around to make me look bad. You would think they would be happy just to have won but juveniles don’t think that way,” Shealy wrote over text. “This is as low as it gets.”