South Carolina total abortion ban will hurt ‘those who are least able to fight back’

Anti-abortion politicians in Columbia have introduced 17 bills so far in the 2021-2022 session to ban and severely restrict abortion. One of these bills moving quickly at the State House now is a total ban on abortion.

Senate Bill 988 will ban all abortions in South Carolina if (read: when) the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the case which established that women have a constitutional right to an abortion. In short, this ban would make abortion a crime.

Anyone who violates this law — whether it’s the doctor who provides an abortion or the person trying to end their pregnancy — could be charged with murder and face the death penalty.

The only legal exception for abortion under S. 988 is to prevent the imminent death of a woman.

An abortion can’t be provided to preserve a woman’s health. She must be at death’s door before a doctor can act to save her life.

There are no exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

Abortion would not be allowed if a woman gets the devastating news that the fetus will not survive after birth. For 20 weeks or longer, this woman will be forced to continue her pregnancy knowing she will not leave the hospital with her baby.

If that sheer cruelty wasn’t enough to turn your stomach, this bill goes even further than simply outlawing abortion. It also defines a person as a fertilized egg – not a living human who has actually been born, as recognized now in state law. More than 50% of fertilized eggs are passed during a menstrual cycle before the egg implants in the uterus. Even more will fail to survive after implantation.

A fertilized egg with less than a 50/50 chance of resulting in a pregnancy will have more rights than the woman whose body created the egg.

This would have an immediate, devastating impact on in vitro fertilization for families who need help getting pregnant. If an egg is a person, fertility specialists will have to preserve every egg retrieved for IVF. Eggs will have to be frozen and maintained indefinitely.

With the destruction of eggs potentially being treated as murder in the eyes of the state, fertility doctors will likely find the risk of going to jail outweighs their desire to help families have a baby.

Defining an egg as a person also has repercussions for birth control. The bill defines contraception or birth control as something that prevents fertilization. While some birth control pills work by preventing ovulation so fertilization can’t occur, other birth control allows fertilization but prevents implantation in the uterus.

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) and some birth control pills could be outlawed by this bill.

Before the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, an estimated 5,000 women died each year from unsafe, illegal abortions. Today, abortion is an extremely safe medical procedure – safer than childbirth, tonsillectomy, or a colonoscopy.

This bill will result in women being punished for pregnancy outcomes beyond their control. Those who suffer miscarriages can expect to be investigated by law enforcement to determine if the woman caused an abortion or if the miscarriage was unintentional. This is not hyperbole.

Women are in jail right now because they were believed to have caused their own miscarriage.

If South Carolina Republican legislators are successful in passing these bills, abortions in our state won’t stop. They’ll just stop being legal, forcing people to travel out of state, manage their abortion at home without medical assistance, or carry pregnancies against their will.

Women with financial means will always have access to abortion.

People who already suffer from lack of resources who will be hurt the most – low-income women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and young women.

Our legislature – once again – hurts those who are least able to fight back.

Vicki Ringer is Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.