New report details impact of 6-week abortion ban in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - When Republican lawmakers at the South Carolina State House broke through months of disagreements and debates to enact a law that bans most abortions after about six weeks into a pregnancy in 2023, they said their goal was not just to reduce South Carolinians’ access to the procedure but to also cut the number of out-of-state residents seeking abortions in the Palmetto State.

A new report confirms those expectations have played out as anticipated in the first year following the law’s implementation.

Data released Tuesday from the Department of Public Health paints two starkly different pictures of abortion access in South Carolina, from before and after August of 2023.

That’s when a Supreme Court ruling allowed the six-week ban to take effect following years of litigation and the high court’s rejection of an earlier, near identical law that sent legislators back to the drawing board.

Before that, South Carolina allowed most abortions through about 20 weeks of pregnancy.

For a period, it stood as the least restrictive measure in the southeast as nearby and neighboring states tightened access to the procedure following the US Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Abortion opponents said it made South Carolina the region’s “abortion destination” as they emphasized the Republican-dominated state’s need to enact tighter measures.

Action at the State House worked as intended: New DPH data shows a 92% drop in out-of-state residents getting abortions in South Carolina from 2023 to 2024.

The conservative Christian group Palmetto Family Council lauded the numbers, saying they show the state’s “Fetal Heartbeat Law” has been effective.

“There’s no point in traveling to South Carolina now, and that’s a positive,” Palmetto Family Council Communications Director Justin Hall said. “We don’t want to be viewed as a state where I can go and end the life of another human being legally. We wanted to stop that. We would like to see other states follow that model, but certainly we’ve cut down on that destination vacation spot.”

Meanwhile, the number of South Carolinians getting abortions in the state dropped by more than 40% from 2023 to 2024.

Overall, there were more than 5,000 fewer abortions in South Carolina in that time: from 8,187 in 2023 to 3,025 the next year.

“We’re now seeing, based on the number, 5,000 children protected and lives saved because of the heartbeat bill,” Hall said.

Planned Parenthood — among the groups that have criticized the ban as prohibiting abortions before the time many women know they are pregnant — said it has seen the effects of this law firsthand in its two clinics in Charleston and Columbia.

More than 1,000 abortions were reported at each of those locations in 2023, but those numbers dipped last year to 873 in Columbia and 521 in Charleston.

The state’s third clinic, where abortions are available, Greenville Women’s Clinic in the Upstate, saw its number drop from 5,158 in 2023 to 1,584 in 2024.

“75% of the people who come to see us have had to be turned away. They want an abortion, they’ve already decided they want an abortion, but we are not able to help them provide the care that we are able to provide because they are too far along,” Vicki Ringer with Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said.

The organization said these restrictions have not ended abortions, just moved them to other states, at South Carolinians’ expense.

“Half of all out-of-state abortions in North Carolina are from South Carolina people. So while the abortion ban in South Carolina has been very effective at shutting down care for people here, as we have always said, people will find a way,” Ringer said.

Planned Parenthood and one of its patients sued the state, asking for the law to be enforced closer to nine weeks into a pregnancy.

But the state Supreme Court decided to keep enforcement at around six weeks in a ruling earlier this year.

Data from the new DPH report runs through December 2024, with figures from 2025 released next summer.

You can view the full 2024 report here:

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