Abolitionists Call for Amendments to Strengthen New Anti-Abortion Bill in South Carolina
Senate Bill 323 in South Carolina would criminalize abortion for all parties involved, but would fall short of establishing equal protection of the laws for preborn babies. As the bill faced a preliminary hearing before the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee on October 1, 2025, abolitionists called for the strengthening of the bill.
They faced opposition not only from hundreds of pro-abortion agitators who descended upon the South Carolina State Capitol for the hearing, but also from Pro-Life establishment groups that reject the concept of criminalizing all parties willfully involved in abortion.
Penalties and Protections
Senate Bill 323, introduced by South Carolina Republican State Senator Richard Cash, would allow for prison sentences of “not more than thirty years” for those who murder preborn babies, including pregnant mothers who willfully participate in their own abortions.
While that element of the bill marks a welcome departure from typical Pro-Life measures, which provide complete legal immunity for all women who willfully have abortions, Senate Bill 323 still falls short of equal protection.
The prison sentences prescribed by the bill are weaker than existing penalties in South Carolina for the murder of born people. The bill also applies protections from the time a pregnancy is “clinically diagnosable” instead of fertilization, leaving preborn babies in the earliest stages of pregnancy and those conceived through IVF vulnerable to murder and assault.
John Rice-Cameron, legislative liaison for the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, advised the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee to amend the legislation to protect life from fertilization with the same standards as South Carolina laws that already protect born people.
Many other abolitionists provided testimony on Senate Bill 323, calling for similar amendments to make the legislation stronger. Among them were Mark Corral, the president of Equal Protection South Carolina; Matt Brock, executive director of Equal Protection South Carolina; and Kiley Waldrop, the city director of Love Life Greenville.
Beyond discussing the need for true equal protection, much of the hearing was driven by anti-abortion Christians endorsing criminal penalties for women who willfully murder their preborn babies. There were abortion mill sidewalk counselors, constitutional attorneys, and other experts who presented a compelling case for closing the loopholes in South Carolina that keep abortion legal for women in the state.
Pro-Life Opposition
Many pro-abortion agitators testified against Senate Bill 323, and several who interrupted the hearing with violent expletive outbursts were removed by security. But they were not the only ones who opposed Senate Bill 323. Pro-Life establishment groups in South Carolina and beyond also actively voiced their disapproval of the bill.
South Carolina Citizens for Life, the leading Pro-Life organization in the state, issued a memo on August 12 in “opposition to criminalizing post-abortive women.” The document invoked a letter signed three years ago by more than seventy national and state Pro-Life leaders, including Lisa Van Riper and Holly Gatling of South Carolina Citizens for Life, opposing any anti-abortion legislation allowing penalties for women who willfully murder their preborn children.
The memo also dishonestly claimed that Senate Bill 323 would prescribe the death penalty to women who have abortions, despite the bill capping penalties at thirty years in prison.
Palmetto Family Alliance, another Pro-Life organization in South Carolina, issued a statement against the bill on the day of the hearing. They claimed to hold the position that “life begins at conception,” but insisted that “the criminalization of women” marked an area of concern with Senate Bill 323.
Kristan Hawkins, the president of national Pro-Life establishment group Students for Life, likewise sent a letter directly to South Carolina lawmakers countering all legislation that would harm “mothers who are often the second-victim of the predatory abortion industry.” Rather than offering a coherent biblical or ethical argument, she invoked a plot point from Les Miserables and cited a National Review opinion piece claiming that “advocates of prosecution need to decide whether they want to punish women or reduce elective abortion.”
While the letter did not directly name Senate Bill 323, the document endorsed significantly weaker legislation from Students for Life Action, which would extend complete legal immunity to mothers who willfully murder their own preborn children.
Progress for Equal Protection
South Carolina has been a deeply red state for decades. They have a Republican Governor and Republican legislative supermajorities, but they still have remarkably weak anti-abortion regulations relative to similar states. They are also one of the few red states where abortion mills remain open for business.
In spite of this dismal state of affairs, under which an increasing number of preborn babies are murdered, Pro-Life measures that appear before South Carolina lawmakers are often poor attempts at regulating abortion. The abolitionist movement is growing despite opposition from Pro-Life establishment groups, and yet there remains a drastic need for more cultural and political progress toward equal protection.
The debate surrounding Senate Bill 323 marked a welcome shift in the anti-abortion conversation. South Carolina lawmakers were able to hear principled calls for the criminalization of abortion that were amplified by state and national media. Christians across the country were able to watch believers in South Carolina testify that murdering anyone should be illegal for everyone.
The only way to abolish abortion in South Carolina, and in every other state, is establishing equal protection of the laws for preborn babies and criminalizing abortion for all parties involved.
Christians advocating for true equal protection may have been slandered by pro-abortion agitators and subverted by Pro-Life establishment groups, but their testimonies on Senate Bill 323 helped continue the paradigm shift toward justice for preborn babies.