Abortion in South Carolina
Abortion in South Carolina is illegal after detection of a "fetal heartbeat",[1] usually around 6 weeks from the woman's last menstrual period, when many women are not yet aware that they are pregnant.
[7][8] Passed in 2021, that law had criminalized abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detectable, which is around five or six weeks after the first day of the woman's last menstrual period.
In 2022, when a political campaign polled South Carolina adults, it found that 53% support "a woman’s right to choose to have a safe and legal abortion" while 37% do not.
Critics of efforts by state lawmakers to restrict abortion access say it results in South Carolinian women needing to spend more money and travel greater distances for the procedure.
[13] On June 2, 2023, 22-year old Amari Marsh, who was attending South Carolina State University, was arrested and improperly charged with homicide after experiencing a miscarriage that March.
[12] Republican Representative Greg Delleney was the lead sponsor of South Carolina's law requiring that women view an ultrasound of a fetus before being allowed to have an abortion.
He said the ultrasound would enable the woman to "determine for herself whether she is carrying an unborn child deserving of protection or whether it's just an inconvenient, unnecessary part of her body.
[19] The bill, entitled the "Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Act", was introduced on January 8, 2018, and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
[26] Representatives from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) stated in a September 2021 Senate hearing that "contemporary ultrasound can detect an electrically induced flickering of a portion of the embryonic tissue," which differs structurally and functionally from both the lay understanding and medical definition of the term "fetus", "heart" and "heartbeat.
[7] In September 2022, the South Carolina Legislature failed in an attempt to ban abortion at fertilization due to objections from female legislators for being too strict.
The legislature then failed to make stricter the state's existing 6-week abortion ban due to objections from the caucus that the proposed new law wasn't strict enough.
[28] The law generally banned abortion once there is "cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac".
[2] In 2023, Republican Representative Rob Harris authored the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023, which would make women who had abortions eligible for the death penalty.
[31] The bill would define fertilized eggs as human beings and offers no exception for pregnant individuals seeking abortion due to sexual assault, incest, or poor fetal health.
[34][35] The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.
[39] The Supreme Court had a 6–3 ruling in the case, which was about a South Carolina public hospital policy requiring all pregnant women to be drug tested.
The Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment protected women against unreasonable search and seizures, which mandatory drug testing was.
[38] The US Supreme Court reasoned that the interest in curtailing pregnancy complications and reducing the medical costs associated with maternal cocaine use outweighed what it characterized as a "minimal intrusion" on the women's privacy.
[42] In August 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the state's 2023 law, banning most abortions after cardiac activity is detected, is constitutional.
[61] Due to this physical confrontation and over 300 others since the beginning of 2021 that led to 20 arrests at the clinic, in October 2023 the Greenville County Council's Public Safety Committee voted to prohibit firearms, weapons, body armor, open flames, bicycles and the blocking of pedestrian walkways and entrances to businesses at protests.
