Public hearing on Tuesday for bill that calls for total abortion ban across South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A public hearing was held Tuesday for a bill that calls for a total abortion ban across South Carolina. That bill would eliminate existing exceptions for rape, incest, and fatal fetal anomalies. It would also criminalize women who have an abortion, as well as their healthcare providers.

On Tuesday, doctors, pastors, legislators and residents gave testimony before the Senate Medical Affairs Subcommittee in Columbia. Personhood SC Executive Director Matt Clark said, “The ‘heartbeat law’ allows for babies who have been conceived in rape or incest or who may be medically limited, to be murdered. And that’s an evil deed. And we’re here to therefore speak in favor of S.1095 which would bring all of these things to an end.”

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s Vicki Ringer said, “You can define for your own lives morally and logically, but to suggest that only your decisions, your moral reasons, are the only ones, is difficult to listen to.”

A similar bill pushing to jail women for up to 30 years for having an abortion was rejected by a subcommittee last November. Already, South Carolina’s “heartbeat law” bans most abortions after about six-weeks of pregnancy.