Abortion in South Carolina

Fetal heartbeat bills by state, including time limit without exceptions marked:

  Heartbeat bill passed (to go into effect)

  Law partially passed by state legislature

  Law blocked by court order

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the Union except Louisiana had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions.[16] In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens.[16] By 1950, the state legislature would pass a law that stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion regardless of whether she went through with it were guilty of a criminal offense.[16]

The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement.[17] In 2013, state Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to medication induced abortions and private doctor offices in addition to abortion clinics.[18] Governor Nikki Haley signed legislation that brought into effect a 20-week abortion ban in 2016.  At a ceremonial signing ceremony for the cameras, she was surrounded by children with disabilities.[15]

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] Rep. John Mccravy prefiled HB 3020 in the South Carolina House of Representatives in December 2018.[20] The bill, which is entitled "Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Act", was introduced on January 8, 2018 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.[21][22] Previous attempts to pass fetal heartbeat bills in the South Carolina General Assembly have failed.[23][24] The state legislature was one of ten states nationwide that to pass similar legislation that year.[25]
[24] In April 2019, by a vote of 70–31, the S.C. House of Representatives passed a "fetal heartbeat" bill.  The measure passed after five hours of debate.[26]

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.[16] The US Supreme Court heard Ferguson v. City of Charleston in 2001.[27] On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed, but on the ground that the searches were justified as a matter of law by special non-law-enforcement needs.[28] The Supreme Court had a 6 - 3 ruling in a case 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.[27] 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. The Supreme Court then agreed to hear the case.[29] Justice Kennedy pointed out that all searches, by definition, would uncover evidence of crime, and this says nothing about the "special needs" the search might serve. In this case, however, Kennedy agreed that "while the policy may well have served legitimate needs unrelated to law enforcement, it had as well a penal character with a far greater connection to law enforcement than other searches sustained under our special needs rationale."[30]

Number of abortion clinics in South Carolina by year.

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state increased by three, going from fifteen in 1982 to eighteen in 1992.[31] In 2014, there were three abortion clinics in the state.[32] In 2014, 93% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 71% of women in the state aged 15 – 44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[33] In 2017, there were two Planned Parenthood clinics in a state with a population of 1,112,199 women aged 15 – 49 of which one offered abortion services.[34] In 2018, there were three licensed abortion clinics in the state. They were in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville.[15] The Charleston clinic was a Planned Parenthood clinic in West Ashley.[15]

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.[43]

Between 1998 and 2017, the number of abortions that took place on a yearly basis in the state dropped by 5,112.  According to anti-abortion rights group South Carolina Citizens for Life this drop meant that harsh anti-abortion measures in the state worked.  According to South Carolina Citizens Executive Director Holly Gatling in regards to the number of women seeking abortions outside the state over the same period remaining unchanged, "South Carolina Citizens for Life is responsible for South Carolina, not for any other state where women who claim to be from South Carolina abort their children. [...] All we can do is work to reduce the number of abortions occurring in South Carolina, and we have done that and continue to do so."[15]

Governor Nikki Haley said in 2016, "I'm not pro-life because the Republican Party tells me. [...] I'm pro-life because all of us have had experiences of what it means to have one of these special little ones in our life."[15]

Charleston Republican Senator Larry Grooms said in 2018, "I believe that all life is sacred, that an unborn child has a right to life, just like a child that has already experienced birth."[15]

South Carolina state Rep. Nancy Mace said during the sex-week "fetal heartbeat" in 2019 on the floor of the House during a 10-minute floor speech about an amendment she introduced, "I was gripping the podium so hard I thought I was going to pull it out of the floor. [...] I was angry at the language my colleagues were using. They were saying rape was the fault of the woman. They called these women baby killers and murderers. That language is so degrading toward women, particularly victims of rape or incest. And I said to myself I'm not going to put up with that bull----. I was nearly yelling into the mic. I gave a very passionate speech to my colleagues and that is what got the exception through."[44]