My Grandma, Corinne Stevenson, was born in 1914. She grew up on a small cotton farm in Arkansas—she would try to claim the chore of churning butter because at least she could read while she was doing it—and she raised two daughters in a time when abortion was illegal and access to contraception was limited.

Over the course of her lifetime, Grandma went from being an FDR New Deal Democrat to a Reagan Republican, and like a lot of Grandmas, she wanted to pass her beliefs down to us. I remember her telling me: “I don’t believe in abortion.” But then she paused, and added, “But if one of my girls got into trouble, I would have helped her fix it.”

The people of South Carolina are a lot like my Grandma. According to a 2023 Winthrop poll,[1] a sizable minority of us are generally opposed to abortion. Also, a strong majority of us believe that women should be able to obtain legal abortions in a number of circumstances. Even many anti-abortion advocates believe that women who seek abortions should not be treated as criminals.[2]

S.323 flies in the face of what the people of South Carolina want in countless ways. It would treat every fertilized egg as a person with full legal rights, which is based in a minority religious view that the state has no business enshrining in law. 

This bill would not only make abortion a crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison but would even criminalize acts of speech to help others access abortion—an appalling gag on our freedom of speech. It would force the victims of rape and incest, including children, to carry and bear the babies of their rapists. It would create a culture of Orwellian surveillance over pregnancy, in which pregnant people will suffer because the state has made what happens inside their homes and inside their bodies the state’s business.

I am one of many, many women who has experienced the unexpected and painful end of a much-wanted pregnancy through miscarriage. It was a terrible time for me. You know what would have made it worse? Having to worry that I could be criminally prosecuted because the state chose to believe that I caused it. Bill S.323 would add that to the existing pain.

This bill is dangerous and cruel. It tramples on the moral and constitutional rights of personal autonomy, free speech, privacy, religious expression and more. 

And it does not reflect the views of the general population. You represent the people of South Carolina. This bill does not. The League of Women Voters opposes this terrible bill, and we urge you to oppose it as well. Thank you.