Image – Shutterstock: South Carolina State House
South Carolina has become the stage for a dramatic new development in America’s abortion debate. The Unborn Child Protection Act, also known as Senate Bill 323, proposes a near-total ban on abortion and would classify the act of undergoing, or assisting with, an abortion as a felony offence.
What has surprised many observers is that opposition to the bill has come not just from pro-abortion advocates, but from two of the state’s most prominent pro-life organisations.
South Carolina Citizens for Life issued a statement just hours before the legislation was due to be heard in committee, declaring that criminalising women who have abortions is “inconsistent” with their decades of work to protect both mother and child.
They stressed that while abortion providers should be held legally accountable, women themselves are often pressured or abandoned in their pregnancies and require support, counselling, and compassion. Palmetto Family Alliance echoed this view, with its president, Steve Pettit, objecting to provisions that would compel pregnancy centre staff to testify against their clients and condemning the proposal to treat post-abortive women as criminals.
Despite strong backing from some pro-life senators, the likelihood of Senate Bill 323 passing into law in its current form is uncertain. Within the Republican-dominated legislature there are signs of hesitation, not least because of the scale of opposition from within the pro-life movement itself. More than 300 people are expected to testify on the bill, reflecting the seriousness of the debate.
This episode has revealed a deeper rift that has long simmered within the pro-life world. At its core is a stark question of principle: should abortion be treated in law exactly like the murder of a born person, with penalties to match, or should the movement continue to insist on compassion for women as victims of abortion and avoid criminalising them?
The former offers consistency, but risks alienating the very women whose circumstances and suffering pro-lifers have always sought to highlight. The latter reflects mercy, but some argue it undermines the claim that abortion is the taking of an innocent life. A question that has been floating around for a long time lingers; is the biggest enemy to the pro-life movement itself?
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