Near total abortion ban proposed. Six restrictions SC is weighing in new bill.

Testimony on a bill that would ban nearly all abortions in South Carolina starts Wednesday.

While the state already has a six-week ban on abortions with some exceptions, lawmakers are considering a bill that could drastically change reproductive healthcare in South Carolina.

A state Senate committee will hear arguments about the bill starting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. It’s one of the first steps in a long process to pass the restrictions. Changes will likely be made to the bill, if it continues through the lawmaking process at all.

South Carolina faced litigation over its current six-week ban. Gov. Henry McMaster told reporters earlier this month that the state’s current abortion ban was a “good resting place.”

“I know there could be more arguments, more debates, but I’m comfortable with where we have rested now,” McMaster said Sept. 4.

Some House lawmakers, spearheaded by state Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, pushed for a total abortion ban earlier this year, but it was not a priority for Republican lawmakers.

State Sen. Richard Cash, R-Anderson, is the sponsor of the bill. He said the bill is a “logical next step” from the states current roughly six-week ban.

“I know it’s a very difficult issue, and I am sure that some people would rather not deal with it,” Cash said. “However, if you believe that life begins at conception and has an inalienable right to live, then I don’t see how we cannot take it up.”

If the bill were to be signed into law as currently written, here are six restrictions it could make on South Carolinians and their health care providers:

Outlaws abortions, even before six weeks

Currently, physicians can legally provide abortions to patients when a fetal heartbeat is undetectable. That is generally estimated as the sixth week of pregnancy. It’s a ban that many abortion advocates already consider to be restrictive and sometimes dangerous for patients. Anti-abortion lawmakers and advocates say bans protect life.

The new bill would not allow physicians to administer an abortion before or after a fetal heartbeat is detected. This means South Carolina would have a nearly total ban on abortions.

In 2024, over 97% of reported abortions were performed at six weeks or earlier, according to Department of Public Health data.

Eliminating most abortion ban exceptions

Pregnancy caused by rape or incest would not be a legal exception for the abortion ban under the new bill. Currently, patients can receive an abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy in cases where the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. Fewer than five abortions were provided in 2024 in these cases, according to data from the state Department of Public Health.

Additionally, the bill would not allow for abortions in the case of a fatal fetal anomaly.

Physicians could still administer an abortion if the life of the pregnant person is at risk. In 2024, only 10 abortions were provided due to a medical emergency, according to data from the state Department of Public Health.

Charleston physician Kelsey Loeliger warned the bill could scare physicians away from providing abortions out of fear of legal repercussions, even when it would be legal. Loeliger is a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health and the American College for Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“The risk of criminalization is so scary that I cannot find anyone to assist me,” Loeliger said. “I would not be able to find an anesthesiologist or nurse or a hospital staff member to help participate in that care because the fear that a ban like this causes is devastating.”

Bans possession of abortion medications

It would also be illegal to manufacture, possess or distribute abortifacients, defined as mifepristone, misoprostol or any other chemical or drug intended to cause an abortion, when the intent is to use it for abortion.

Other states, including Massachusetts and New York, allow their providers to prescribe abortion pills to people in states with bans, like South Carolina, without fear of prosecution. Shield laws allow those providers to prescribe abortion pills to South Carolinians without legal consequence, a practice Republican attorneys general are trying to crack down on.

Research from the Society for Family Planning suggests 1 in 4 people nationally who had an abortion by the end of last year received it through telehealth and half of all telehealth abortions were facilitated by shield laws. Data from the organization predicts that 3,890 abortions were facilitated through telehealth in South Carolina in 2024.

Sparks concern for fertility treatments

Abortion advocates, including the ACLU and Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, have also warned that the proposed bill could impact fertility treatments.

An unborn child is defined as a human being from “conception to live birth.” Some fertility treatments, like in vitro fertilization, typically involve physicians legally facilitating multiple fertilizations of an egg outside the body, under the bill’s definitions. That could make fertility treatments legally risky or illegal, Loeliger said.

The cells created during IVF are called blastocysts, and they would be considered people under the law, Loeliger said. Typically, multiple blastocysts are created, but only one will be implanted, she said. That could create a problem over what to do with the remaining blastocysts and who is responsible for them.

Opens door for emergency contraceptive restrictions

A new definition for contraceptives created concerns that the bill could be used to restrict some birth control options in the future.

The bill does not place any explicit restrictions on contraceptives. It defines a contraceptive as something that prevents conception, or in this bill, the fertilization of an ovum by a sperm.

Conception is not a medical term and does not have one agreed upon definition.

Loeliger said she is concerned that some contraceptives could be considered medication abortions in the future. For example, emergency contraceptives may be targeted if they are misconstrued to be abortion medications, she said. Plan B is a common emergency contraceptive in the U.S.

“I think it’s important to recognize that conception is not a medical term, and so any non-medical term in this bill can further be defined in a way that is not actually scientifically accurate, but can then ultimately be applied to to ban certain medications,” Loeliger said.

The ACLU and Planned Parenthood expressed similar concerns in news releases.

But state Sen. Rex Rice, R-Pickens, said he is willing to listen to concerns about the bill during Wednesday’s hearing and make changes. Rice is a sponsor of the bill.

“The goal is to protect the unborn child,” Rice said. “We’re not trying to take away the options of contraceptives.

Aiding travel, providing information criminalized

Providing information about how to obtain an abortion could be illegal under the new bill. Communicating anywhere, including over the phone or Internet, about self-administered abortions or referring someone to a provider would be a felony under the bill.

It is also illegal to help a minor travel to another state to receive an abortion. It is not uncommon for pregnant people to travel to other states with fewer abortion restrictions. The Guttmacher Institute, a progressive research group, estimated that about 8,540 South Carolina residents traveled out of state for care in 2024. In 2023, about 8,370 people traveled out-of-state.

Violating many of the restrictions, including bans on abortion pills or spreading information to help someone have an abortion, could be a felony carrying a penalty of up to 30 years in jail. Prosecutors would also consider the abortion a “homicide of a person who had been born alive.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 9:02 AM.