UPDATED | MORNING HEADLINES | A Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee this morning voted to advance a proposed total abortion ban bill dubbed “The Unborn Child Protection Act.”
Senate Bill 1095, filed earlier this month, would replace South Carolina’s six‑week “heartbeat” law with a near‑total abortion ban, prohibiting abortions once a pregnancy is clinically diagnosable and eliminate existing exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomalies. Under the proposed bill, abortions would be permitted only in cases of medical emergencies to prevent a woman’s death or a “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
Under the proposal, doctors who illegally perform abortions could face felony charges punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Pregnant women could also face misdemeanor charges, carrying a potential sentence of up to two years in prison. Both parties would face hefty fines.
“You’re not protecting families by passing this bill,” said Ashlyn Preaux of the Palmetto State Abortion Fund. “You’re actually tearing them apart, because when you criminalize a mom, you’re not just punishing her — you’re punishing her children.”
The bill would also reclassify medications used in abortion care as controlled substances and criminalize health care providers, a person who has an abortion, and any person who helps someone obtain a legal abortion out of state.
“Last year, this subcommittee rejected a bill just like this one because they saw it for what it was: disgraceful government overreach and abject cruelty,” Vicki Ringer, director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said in a press release. “And yet today they voted to advance the same total abortion ban that criminalizes doctors and patients, threatening to throw a woman who has an abortion in prison.
“We have to meet this assault on our rights. Keep calling, keep emailing, keep speaking out — let your legislator know that you’re watching, and your rights are not for the taking.”
Gov. Henry McMaster has repeatedly gone on record to say that he supports the six-week ban which he signed, saying it has the support of most South Carolinians.
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