What Does SC SB 323 Do?

What Does SC SB 323 Do?

Voices heard SB 323
Type: 
News

What does S. 323 do?

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

Talking Points:

      • SB 323 remains unacceptable in its entirety. There is no amendment that could make this bill acceptable. It would treat any abortion as homicide, with exceptions only for imminent death of the mother or loss of major bodily function.
      • It would require that even the youngest rape and incest victims carry pregnancies to term. Girls are increasingly reaching puberty at very young ages, so this raises the possibility of girls as young as 8 being required to give birth, an exceedingly dangerous demand.
      • With SB 323, no one could decide for themselves whether to continue a pregnancy when a fetus is found to have no chance of survival. Senator Cash and his friends would have decided for them.
      • The bill would prohibit common methods of birth control and endanger IVF.
      • The bill would demand specific resources for all “non-emergency” births from 19-37 weeks (ICU, two doctors present). Many South Carolinians can’t access those resources, and even the few rural hospitals we have are in danger.
      • The requirements of this bill open the door to many prosecutions for miscarriages.
      • The sponsors of this bill have shown no evidence that they believe everyone is morally responsible for preserving other lives. If they believed that, they would be fighting for organ donation, perhaps even mandatory organ donation post mortem. But no, it is only girls and women whose lives they want to control.
A Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee is meeting on this bill on November 18 at 2 pm in Room 308 of the Gressette Building on the State House grounds.  Before they meet, legislators must be told that:

  • 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 another person.
  • Lawmakers should be fighting FOR our freedoms, not against them.

Call Tom Davis (or whomever your Senator is) and tell him not to vote for this egregious attack on women’s health.

 

League to which this content belongs: 
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Area