South Carolina women who participated in a nationwide survey on access to reproductive health care said the rapid expansion of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) is a challenge and barrier to care across the Palmetto State.
CPCs often market themselves as health care providers to attract women who need reproductive health care, but critics say they are really trying to steer people in need from abortion care or certain forms of contraception, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute.
The organization conducted a Reproductive Health Experience and Access Study (RHEA) earlier this year. A third of the South Carolina women who responded said they’ve gone without reproductive health care since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion.
That decision in the Dobbs case overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s abortion rights. In South Carolina, the new Fetal Heartbeat Act now bans abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. A South Carolina woman has joined with Planned Parenthood to sue for a longer time period.
Since that Dobbs decision, CPCs began to appear across the state. CPCs are often operated by anti-abortion, non-medical or religiously affiliated groups, according to the South Carolina women who participated in focus groups following the RHEA survey. Social service agencies also often partner with CPCs for diaper resources, they added.
Some people who responded during the institute’s focus groups in South Carolina said CPC staff and volunteers often protest outside abortion clinics to prevent patients from keeping wellness appointments and receiving care.
The institute’s RHEA study team visited South Carolina in fall 2025, conducting interviews with policymakers, health care providers and advocates. They held three focus groups with a total of 21 women ages 18 to 49.
Of the 34 CPCs in the state, four are in the tri-county area. During the 2024-25 fiscal year, the South Carolina legislature appropriated $3 million in fund CPCs through the S.C. Association of Pregnancy Care Centers.
Misleading with an agenda
The CPC marketing as a health-care provider is so sophisticated that its service agenda can be misleading even for someone who is well-versed in abortion policy or reproductive health care, said Alaisha Verdeflor, a research associate in the institute’s health policy division.
Verdeflor cautioned that CPCs “are not medical facilities, they are not regulated, and they are not legally subjected to privacy standards.” The money that South Carolina spends on CPCs, she added, could fund high-quality reproductive health and maternal health services.
Focus group participants also said South Carolina has a shortage of OB-GYN providers with many counties lacking obstetricians completely. People who were interviewed expressed concern that providers were leaving the state or choosing not to complete medical training in South Carolina because of the restrictive abortion policies that were implemented following the Dobbs decision.
South Carolina also has not expanded Medicaid eligibility to childless adults under the Affordable Care Act. Researchers have observed people who are uninsured are more likely to experience unmet needs to care and barriers to health services.
Reproductive health care includes pelvic exams and screenings for cervical cancer, care for irregular or painful periods, fertility assistance, gender-affirming and menopause symptoms care.
Over the summer, the institute mailed a new round of surveys that asked mostly the same questions as the first survey. It went to a different group of women nationwide, said Emily Johnston, the study’s co-principal investigator.
“We anticipate that we will hear (back) from between 2,500 to 3,000 people in South Carolina,” she added. Those results are expected to be known in the spring or summer of next year.
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