Pro-Life Groups and Republican Senators Kill Bill to Criminalize Abortion in South Carolina
Pro-Life establishment groups have a notorious record of opposing equal protection bills across the country. But they have also made clear that they will oppose any bills that subject pregnant women who willfully murder their own preborn babies to criminal penalties.
This was made clear in South Carolina as lawmakers considered Senate Bill 323, a measure which would have criminalized abortion for all parties willfully involved, during a November 18 hearing for the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee.
While the effort would have fallen short of true equal protection, Senate Bill 323 still failed in a committee vote, thanks in no small way to the direct opposition of Pro-Life establishment groups.
Badly Needed Debate
Senate Bill 323, introduced by South Carolina Republican State Senator Richard Cash, would have allowed for prison sentences of “not more than thirty years” for anyone who murders a preborn baby. The bill would have protected preborn babies from the point at which a pregnancy is “clinically diagnosable.”
John Rice-Cameron, legislative liaison for the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, testified in favor of the criminalization aspect of Senate Bill 323 during an initial public hearing on October 1, but encouraged lawmakers to amend the bill so that the same murder laws protecting born people are applied to protect all preborn babies from fertilization.
Other abolitionist leaders such as Mark Corral, the president of Equal Protection South Carolina, likewise called for amendments to strengthen the bill.
Cash delivered a speech during the November 18 meeting of the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee, drawing attention to the reality that Pro-Life regulations keeping abortion legal for women have failed to decrease abortion numbers in the state.
Cash referenced an analysis of abortion numbers from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion which had also been distributed to lawmakers at the hearing on October 1.
The analysis warned that thousands of women in South Carolina are ordering abortion pills through telehealth providers to murder their preborn babies. When also counting the abortion clinics remaining open in South Carolina and women traveling out of state for abortions, there were more South Carolina preborn babies murdered in 2024 than in 2022, despite the passage of new Pro-Life regulations.
Senate Bill 323 offered a needed platform to debate the merits of abortion criminalization. Beyond coverage in a number of state and national media outlets, Senate Bill 323 presented anti-abortion groups the opportunity to show their true stance for or against criminalizing abortion.
Pro-Life Subversion
Many leading Pro-Life establishment groups issued statements in recent weeks against the criminalization aspect of Senate Bill 323, thereby publicly urging lawmakers to oppose the bill.
South Carolina Citizens for Life, a state-level affiliate of National Right to Life, released a memo against Senate Bill 323 claiming that women are categorically “victims of abortion.” Palmetto Family Council issued a statement claiming to support life from conception while opposing Senate Bill 323 because of the “criminalization of women.” Pro-Life Greenville sent a memo to lawmakers ahead of the most recent hearing for Senate Bill 323, asking them to remove the “provision that would allow for the criminal prosecution of post-abortive women.”
Students for Life, one of the most influential Pro-Life establishment groups in the nation, released a letter against any measure that would harm “mothers who are often the second victim of the predatory abortion industry.”
In line with the concerns from Pro-Life establishment groups, several lawmakers offered amendments to remove criminal penalties for women from Senate Bill 323.
South Carolina Republican State Senator Billy Garrett, who was himself a coauthor of Senate Bill 323, unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would add a maternal immunity clause, which would have extended complete criminal and civil immunity to mothers who willfully murder their preborn babies. Garrett introduced a new amendment to decrease the criminal penalties to a maximum of two years in prison or a $1,000 fine, an amendment which also failed.
South Carolina Republican State Senator Tom Corbin then unsuccessfully offered an amendment to strike the language against aiding and abetting an abortion because of purported free speech concerns.
Senate Bill 323 ultimately failed a full committee vote, with two favorable Republican votes and four Republican abstentions to the bill, meaning that the effort will not advance to the full South Carolina Senate.
Forward Progress
Senate Bill 323 may have failed to advance, but the mere introduction of the bill shifted the state and national abortion debate further in the direction of criminalization, as well as exposed Pro-Life establishment groups unwilling to penalize the murder of preborn babies for all parties involved.
Many grassroots anti-abortion groups, lawmakers, pastors, churches, and individual abolitionists led by Equal Protection South Carolina are increasingly seeing the need to truly abolish abortion. The debate over Senate Bill 323 merely forced anti-abortion groups to reveal their true stances, making clear which groups are sincerely interested in treating abortion as murder.
The debate over Senate Bill 323 comes weeks before renewed discussion about equal protection is expected to start, meaning that the conversation on abolishing abortion in South Carolina will continue in short order.
South Carolina Republican State Representative Rob Harris is currently pushing for a hearing on House Bill 3537, which would establish equal protection of the laws for preborn babies. Thanks to the faithful work of grassroots abolitionists, former South Carolina Republican State Senator Lee Bright has once more secured a seat in the upper chamber, and he has committed to introduce a companion equal protection bill.
Christians in the state of South Carolina must not lose sight of the urgent battle they are waging. There are still thousands of South Carolina preborn babies murdered every single year. If believers are silent or apathetic, then the slaughter will only continue.
May the Lord Jesus Christ move the state of South Carolina to abolish abortion once and for all, without exception or compromise, through the faithfulness of an activated and motivated church.