Extreme abortion ban hearing scheduled for Oct. 1

Extreme abortion ban hearing scheduled for Oct. 1

Time Range For Action Alert: 
Sep 08 2025 to Oct 31 2025

your voice matters

SC Senate Bill S.323 is an extreme abortion ban that would severely limit the personal freedom of those who are pregnant as well as criminalizing health care providers.

The League of Women Voters of South Carolina rejects this bill in its entirety.

What is S.323?

S. 323 is an almost total ban on abortions, identifying it as the crime of homicide punishable by a prison term of up to 30 years for a person having an abortion or aiding in abortion.

There are NO exceptions for rape, incest, or fatal fetal anomalies. This last means that women would be forced to continue to carry fetuses with no hope of life outside the womb, often fetuses that are likely to die in the uterus threatening the life of the woman.

S.323 would give control of every pregnancy, and every pregnant person, in South Carolina to the State. The implications go far beyond preventing abortion and would put at risk anyone who miscarries even the most wanted pregnancy.

Among other things, S. 323 would also:

  • Restrict the use of birth control by amending the definition of a legal “contraceptive” to exclude anything that prevents ovulation or implantation of a fertilized ovum
  • Restrict in vitro fertilization by defining a “human embryo” as a fertilized egg or zygote
  • Make it unlawful to possess any drug or substance that can be used for abortion
  • Make providing information about abortion unlawful, including via a website or phone call. 

The asks

1. NOW:  Make two calls.
Call your Senator and demand that they abandon this egregious attack on our autonomy, privacy, speech, and safety. Personal calls from constituents are the most effective means of influencing legislators!
 
Key legislators: Medical Affairs Subcomittee Members Cash, Corbin, Fernandez, Garrett, Hutton, Martin, Saab, Tedder, Zell
 
Call Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (803-212-6330).
 
2. Share this action alert with friends and family members.
 
3. Plan to attend the October 1 subcommittee hearing, 9:30 am in the SC State House (Gressette Building, Room 105.) This will be the only time South Carolinians can testify in person and put their voices on the record.
 

Talking points 

  • Everyone deserves to make their own decisions about their health care and their future. Politicians should not interfere with anyone’s medical decisions.
  • Health care workers should be able to deliver the medically accepted standard of care without fearing legal prosecution. They should not have to fear that a jury would find their assessment of “imminent threat” or “emergency” insufficient. This uncertainty in other states has already led to maternal deaths. 
  • Our First Amendment right to free speech includes information about abortion. Sharing information about abortion cannot be criminalized, whether it comes from a health care provider or other person. 
  • Lawmakers should be fighting FOR our freedoms, not against them. 

More information

Read more about the League position.
Joint statement with ACLU-SC and other reproductive rights groups.
Issues referenced by this action alert: 
Individual Liberties