South Carolina Republicans are preparing to fast-track an extreme anti-abortion ban through the legislative process. If passed, the bill would outlaw abortion in almost all cases, including in circumstances of rape and incest, and patients accessing abortion services could face murder charges. The bill further proposes to redefine certain birth control methods as illegal.
The new Senate Bill 323, also known as “the unborn child protection act”, is scheduled for a hearing on 1 October and will be the only chance for the public to submit a testimony (a formal opportunity for individuals and organisations to provide opinions, experiences, and arguments both for and against the bill). Not only would S.323 restrict the personal freedoms of abortion patients, but it would potentially criminalise any individual referring someone for an abortion, sharing abortion information, or taking certain contraceptives with a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
In addition to ending exceptions for rape and incest, S.323 would also end abortion exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies, meaning women would be forced to carry fetuses with no hope of life outside the womb and, in many cases, this would also threaten the life of the woman.
A mother in South Carolina, Tori Nardone, told KFOX14: “The restrictions we already have in South Carolina are already causing so much pain for mothers and families and people who want to start families in this state, and this is just going to exacerbate that.”
Nardone has already suffered under the state’s restrictions when she discovered that her daughter had a fatal fetal anomaly in her second trimester. Even though this would have warranted a legal abortion under the current law, doctors were unable to retrieve physical evidence and thus forced Nardone to seek healthcare outside of the state.
Even women with the most wanted pregnancies face life-threatening risks under the current South Carolina laws if they choose to stay in the state they call home, and this new Senate Bill would make matters unfathomably worse for them.
S.323 would also change the definition of contraception so that anything stopping ovulation or the implantation of a fertilised egg would no longer be considered birth control. This bill threatens to ban some IUDs, emergency contraception, and certain hormonal pills, many of which women and girls are prescribed for a number of non-pregnancy prevention related reasons such as managing heavy menstrual bleeding or conditions including endometriosis, adenomyosis and premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Republicans have long tried to call some birth control methods “abortifacients” to push bans, but this bill goes further. And this time they might succeed.
Abortion, Every Day founder Jessica Valenti said that South Carolina abortion rights advocates have told her that despite lawmakers previous failed attempts to pass S.323, they are worried that the legislation will have more support this time around. This bill, drafted as a national model, defines an abortion as anything that ends a “clinically diagnosable pregnancy”. The bill defines this as the moment when the hCG hormone can be detected.
Valenti posits that since hCG is only detectable after a fertilised egg has implanted, “anti-abortion activists are giving themselves a clever out: the legislation starts the ball rolling to ban contraception by claiming that emergency contraception, IUDs, etc aren’t really birth control, but it also allows them to insist they’re not banning those methods because they act before implantation.”
Further to severe implications on contraception, the new bill would also heavily impact fertility treatments like in vitro fertilisation, by defining a human embryo as a fertilised egg or zygote. S.323 would give control of every pregnancy and pregnant patient to the South Carolina State, but only pregnancies from their desired method of contraception.
The new language of S.323 could also criminalise patients who suffer from a miscarriage or a stillbirth. The chief strategy officer for the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network, Ashley Lidow, told KFOX14: “When you’re looking at our laws and you’re looking at child abuse, when you’re looking at homicide, any of the kind of criminal laws that we have in other places, a prosecutor and in this case also the attorney general can apply those to the definitions to the statute. I would say the implications for how many layers of new law this is, it is not just a total abortion ban but truly understanding the chilling effects of other components of law. The fact that they truly are trying to criminalise women who are seeking healthcare.”
What the bill states
- Defines life as beginning at conception.
- Equates abortion with homicide and could carry up to a 30-year prison sentence.
- Prohibits the transportation of a minor out of state to obtain an abortion.
- Changes the legal definition of contraception to anything that stops ovulation or the implantation of a fertilised egg.
- Begins restrictions on in vitro fertilisation (IVF) by defining a human embryo as a fertilised egg or zygote.
- Makes it unlawful to possess any drug or substance that can be used for an abortion
- Makes it unlawful to provide any abortion information to others, including via phone call or a website.
- Requires public school students to watch a propaganda video produced by the anti-abortion group Live Action, called Meet Baby Olivia.
Current abortion laws in South Carolina
While abortion is currently legal in South Carolina, it is heavily restricted and one of the most extreme bans in the industrialised world: abortions become illegal after around six weeks. This six-week ban has already encouraged medical professionals to move out of state, and numerous patients to undergo unsafe abortions or travel out of state.
Exceptions to the current South Carolina abortion laws are very limited and, even when met, the nuances of needing physical evidence can still mean women are not granted one. Abortion finder states that after six weeks, you may only grant an abortion to save the pregnant person’s life, prevent serious risk to their physical health, if the fetus is not expected to survive the pregnancy, or if the pregnancy is a result of rape and/or incest.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, abortion has become illegal in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
