3 years after the fall of Roe, SC is suffering under abortion ban

Three years ago on June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, stripping women of the fundamental right to make decisions about their own bodies.

In South Carolina, we are seeing the harmful effects firsthand and are actively living with the devastating consequences.

Not long after the Supreme Court ruling, South Carolina enacted a six-week abortion ban, a clear and present danger to women’s health, autonomy, and dignity — forcing women to suffer and endure emotional and physical trauma just to access essential healthcare.

In South Carolina, women are denied life-saving medical care

Earlier this year, at nine weeks pregnant, a Greenville mother learned her baby had stopped growing at six weeks — there was no heartbeat. But a procedure to remove the nonviable fetus was denied. She was forced to wait, suffering severe pregnancy symptoms and emotional anguish, until the threat of infection escalated. Even then, she was refused care again.

This is not medicine. This is cruelty masked as policy. This mother’s story is one of many in a state where women are no longer able to make decisions about their own bodies.

In South Carolina, women are forced to flee

In late 2023, a Charleston resident found herself pregnant despite using an IUD. She knew immediately what was right for her, but South Carolina’s ban meant the clock was ticking. She couldn’t get an appointment in time.

Her only choice? Drive more than 20 hours to North Carolina, twice, to get the care she needed.

No one should be forced to leave their state just to exercise bodily autonomy.

She later sued the state in an effort to reset the ban at nine weeks, but a state Supreme Court ruling in May kept it at six.

In late 2024, a Charleston mother was forced to leave South Carolina after receiving a fatal fetal diagnosis during her second trimester. Despite her doctors’ efforts to confirm the condition in which infants rarely survive, state abortion laws blocked her from getting care.

Separated from her support system and young son, she had to travel out of state to get the care she needed and begin grieving a deeply wanted pregnancy.

She stated the experience has even made her question wanting to try and get pregnant again.

In South Carolina, providers are leaving, and new doctors won’t come

The abortion ban is not only harming patients, it’s driving medical professionals away.

Doctors are leaving South Carolina, citing ethical concerns and the inability to practice without fear. Some are even taking their fight to court. And the future doesn’t look brighter:

• Senior OB-GYN residency applications have dropped 5.7% in South Carolina.
• Overall senior residency applications have dropped 6.7% in the state.

This “brain drain” is happening in real time. And in a state already struggling with provider shortages, the long-term consequences for maternal and reproductive health care are alarming.

In South Carolina, entire counties have no maternal care

In South Carolina, 13% of counties are classified as maternity care deserts.

That means no OB-GYNs. No midwives. No prenatal care. In 15 counties, there are zero OB-GYNs per 10,000 women. For 28 counties, zero midwives, according to the latest report from the state Office for Healthcare Workforce.

For those in rural communities, the ban exacerbates already devastating gaps in care. It puts pregnant people at risk simply because of where they live.

In South Carolina, Black women bear the brunt

The maternal mortality crisis is magnified for Black women in our state. They are 4.2 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.

And 94.4% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the state are preventable, according to the latest report from the state Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Review Committee.

South Carolina’s abortion ban does not solve a problem. It compounds a deadly one.

Systemic inequities are deepened when people are denied access to reproductive care.

These abortion bans are immoral, unsafe, and unsustainable. They hurt women, communities, and our healthcare system as a whole.

At WREN, we are actively working every single day to restore reproductive freedom for South Carolina’s women and girls. We must bring compassion, dignity, and autonomy back to health care in South Carolina.

We invite you to join us for our Abortion Access Webinar in partnership with Palmetto State Abortion Fund on Wednesday, June 18, at noon EST as we discuss the future of abortion rights in our state and beyond. You can register here.

They’re working hard to take our rights away.

We’re working harder to fight back.