Now that Roe is overturned, South Carolina is enforcing its “Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act,” although it is in litigation. The state’s prohibition on abortion after 20 weeks remains its strongest protection. South Carolina has a number of pro-life laws, including informed consent, parental consent for minors, and health and safety regulations for abortion businesses. 

Pro-life conservatives control both the South Carolina House of Representatives and the State Senate. 

Under South Carolina’s judicial appointment system, the legislature appoints justices to the state supreme court from a list prepared by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission. Justices serve 10-year terms. Pro-life conservatives are in the majority in the South Carolina Supreme Court, according to Ballotpedia. South Carolina has asked the United States Supreme Court to review whether the state can remove abortion businesses as “qualified” Medicaid providers.  

Governor Henry McMaster, re-elected in 2022 by a large margin, is a staunch defender of Life. In 2018, he signed an executive order limiting taxpayer funding of abortion, stating, “the preservation of life is the ultimate right to be protected and necessarily includes the life of unborn children.” Governor McMaster also filed an amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, arguing the Supreme Court should overturn Roe. 

According to AUL’s Unsafe report, the state has a working regulatory framework that has been upheld by federal courts. AUL received 132 inspection reports, citing deficiencies for improper processing of pathogenic waste, inadequate infection control standards, and having expired medication. 

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South Carolina Abortion Quick Facts

  • South Carolina’s Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act is in effect, but it faces litigation.
  • South Carolina limits abortions after 20 weeks gestational age except in cases of life endangerment, severely compromised physical health, rape or incest.
  • Chemical abortion pills could be more tightly regulated in South Carolina but cannot be prescribed via telemedicine.

South Carolina’s Pro-Life Laws Across the Spectrum

Americans United for Life advances the human right to life across the spectrum of issues confronting the dignity of the human person. AUL’s comprehensive analysis of South Carolina’s state laws on human life span the full spectrum of life issues from abortion, to health and safety protections, to patient informed consent, to conscience rights and bioethics.

South Carolina’s Pro-Life Laws Key

  • Yes, South Carolina has this law and it is enforceable
  • South Carolina has this law in place, but it is currently not in effect due to litigation
  • No, South Carolina has no such law in place
  • Not Applicable
  • To Be Determined

State Constitutional Amendments and Statutes

Americans United for Life covers broad pro-life laws in this section. This includes both state constitutional amendments and state statutes designed to protect preborn human life. FOCA/RHA (or Freedom of Choice Acts/Reproductive Health Acts) are laws designed to enshrine and expand abortion and abortion businesses.

  • Constitutional amendment stating no right to abortion
  • Constitutional amendment preventing state funding of abortion
  • Conditional law prohibiting abortion when Roe is overturned
  • Pre-Roe abortion ban that will take effect when Roe is overturned
  • FOCA/RHA, codifying an abortion right in state law

Mother-Child Gestational and Procedural Protections

States can protect both mother and child by limiting abortion by gestational age or prohibiting gruesome abortion methods. This category also includes life-saving care requirements for a child born-alive after an abortion, and health and safety requirements for a woman undergoing a chemical abortion.

 

  • Gestational protections by age/week for preborn children
  • Basic medical care for infant children born alive during attempted abortions
  • Partial-birth (D&X) abortion ban
  • Dismemberment (D&E) abortion ban
  • Telemedicine abortion ban
  • Follow up scheduled with patient for abortion pills complications

Prenatal Non-Discrimination (PRENDA) Protections

Increasingly states are enacting laws to protect unborn babies from eugenic abortions based on gender, disability, or race. Some states provide life-affirming resources for families who receive a diagnosis of a possible genetic anomaly like Down syndrome so they know that they’ll be supported.

 

  • Protection against discrimination based on gender
  • Protection against discrimination due to prenatal diagnosis
  • Protection against discrimination based on race
  • State-provided life-affirming resources for parents and families

Informed Consent Laws

Many states require a woman to give informed consent to an abortion, which holds abortion to a similar standard as other medical procedures. These protections include the disclosure of an abortion procedure’s nature and risks, the performance of an ultrasound to date the pregnancy and allow a woman to meet her unborn child if she chooses, and the time for a woman to reflect on this grave decision.

 

  • Basic informed consent for mothers concerning abortion
  • Patient signature or written confirmation of informed consent from provider
  • Patient is provided state-sponsored informed consent website/information
  • Reflection period (48 hours) protecting a mother’s discernment and choice
  • An ultrasound is required to give a mother the opportunity to meet their child
  • Information on risks of abortion procedure
  • Information on the possibility of abortion pill reversal care

Abortion Reporting in Public Health Data

Reporting requirements ensure the government and public have a comprehensive view of abortion in the state when making important public policy decisions. This data includes basic information on instances of abortion, the gestational age of the aborted unborn child, demographics, procedure type, and complications.

 

  • Basic reporting on instances of abortion
  • Abortion reporting includes gestational age data
  • Abortion reporting includes demographic information
  • Abortion reporting includes procedure type
  • Complication reporting
  • Anonymized/aggregate data is made available to the public
  • Anonymized/aggregate data is submitted to the CDC

Parental Rights and Protection of Minors

States protect a minor considering abortion by involving her parents in her life-changing decision, but also provide guidelines for judicial bypass to parental involvement when it is necessary. Other laws included in this section are safe haven laws which create a safe pathway to give up an infant and prevent child abandonment, and the dissemination of information on perinatal hospice to parents of unborn children with fetal anomalies.

 

  • Parental consent before a minor obtains an abortion
  • Parental notice of a minor obtaining an abortion
  • Judicial bypass limits
  • Mandatory reporting of suspected abuse
  • Safe haven protections (72 hours)
  • Perinatal hospice resources

Basic Health and Safety Standards

These laws bring abortion businesses up to the health and safety standards of medical facilities. States may limit both chemical and surgical abortion procedures to physicians, require the physician be licensed by the state, and require emergency transfer agreements or admitting privileges for the physician or the facility to protect a patient if she suffers post-abortion complications.

 

  • Established health and safety standards for abortion businesses
  • Basic regulatory inspections for abortion businesses
  • Only physicians can perform abortions (all methods)
  • Physicians required to be licensed in the state
  • Emergency transfer/admitting privilege patient protections
  • Physician’s license/credentials are disclosed to patients

Legal Recognition of Human Dignity for Preborn Persons

This section covers the ways states recognize the human dignity of unborn children. States increasingly require dignified disposition of fetal remains, whether from abortion or miscarriage. The law may provide for the issuance of a fetal death or stillbirth certificate. States may also protect the dignity of unborn children by prohibiting fetal experimentation and banning the sale or transfer of human fetal remains.

 

  • Dignified disposition of fetal remains required
  • Parents may request dignified disposition
  • Human fetal death or stillbirth certificate issued to recognize the life of human persons (20 weeks)
  • Sale or transfer of human fetal remains prohibited
  • Fetal experimentation banned

Fetal Homicide and Wrongful Death/Life

Fetal homicide laws establish criminal penalties for the death of an unborn child. Wrongful death suits provide a civil cause of action for the death of an unborn child. A prohibition on wrongful life/birth suits affirms that no life is “unwanted.”

 

  • Fetal homicide criminalization
  • Fetal homicide law in place from the moment of conception
  • Wrongful death suits
  • Prohibition on wrongful life/birth suits

Assisted Suicide and Patient Care

These laws protect end-of-life patients from physician-assisted suicide, a practice that exploits vulnerable patients, has little government oversight, and undermines modern medicine. The Life-Sustaining Care Act ensures healthcare professionals may not override a minor patient or her surrogate’s decision to obtain or continue life-sustaining care. States with patient nondiscrimination acts protect patients from age or disability discrimination.

 

  • Assisted suicide prohibition
  • Life-sustaining care act
  • Patient non-discrimination on the basis of age or disability

Bioethics, Human Cloning, and Embryo Research

As medical technology evolves, states increasingly enact pro-life bioethics policies to reaffirm human dignity and ban cloning. These laws also require ethical medical practices, ban destructive embryo research, and regulate assisted reproductive technology.

 

  • Bans human cloning
  • Bans taxpayer funding for human cloning
  • Bans destructive embryo research
  • Encourages ethical alternatives to embryo research
  • Requires informed consent for assisted reproductive technologies
  • Regulates egg harvesting

Healthcare Freedom of Conscience

These laws protect the freedom of conscience of healthcare professionals, institutions, and pharmacists against forced participation in assisted suicide and abortion. States also safeguard the conscience rights of healthcare professionals and institutions against unethical medical research.

 

  • Individuals protected against abortion participation
  • Public/Private institutions protected against abortion participation
  • Pharmacists protected against abortion participation
  • Individuals protected against participation in unethical research
  • Private/public institutions protected against participation in unethical research
  • Individuals protected against participation in assisted suicide
  • Private/public institutions protected against participation in assisted suicide
  • Pharmacists protected against participation in assisted suicide

South Carolina Pro-Life Legislation Tracker

South Carolina Abortion Inspection Initiative

South Carolina has a working regulatory framework that has been upheld by federal courts. AUL submitted a public records request, under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, S.C. Code Ann. § 30-4-10 et seq., to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), and the state responded with over a hundred inspection reports and related correspondence. Several reports show abortion businesses with health and safety violations, year after year, including failure to disinfect any material surface that came in contact with infectious waste. Many of their reports focus on how abortion businesses process pathogenic (i.e., bacterial disease- causing) waste, and most abortion businesses in the state have been fined thousands of dollars for these types of violations. One facility was fined $19,000 for taking pathogenic waste to a gas station down the street and handing it off to a disposal company. The reports also show that inspectors constantly found expired medications and staff who were not properly handling medicines. Other reports showed physical plant standards lacking. Several reports showed state abortion businesses failed to have a designated infec- tion control committee and in-service training for infection control, to include as a minimum, universal precautions against blood-borne dis- eases, general sanitation, personal hygiene such as had washing, use of masks and gloves, and instruction to staff if there is a likelihood of transmitting a disease to patients or other staff members.

NUMBER OF REPORTS: 132 
DATE RANGE: 2010–2019