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Abortions in South Carolina plunged by 63% from 2023 to 2024, according to data released this week by the S.C. Department of Public Health (SCDPH) – but pro-life leaders in the Palmetto State aren’t celebrating.
As FITSNews previously reported, this issue tore apart the “Republican” supermajority earlier this year – and threatens to continue driving a wedge between those who want to completely eliminate abortion in South Carolina.
Per SCDPH data (.pdf), a total of 3,025 abortions were performed in the Palmetto State last year – down from 8,187 abortions performed in 2023. This massive reduction – attributable to the passage of the 2023 “heartbeat bill” – was celebrated by status quo governor Henry McMaster.
“We have dedicated ourselves to protecting life in South Carolina, and now we are seeing the results of our efforts,” McMaster said in a statement provided to Life News. “The significant decline in abortions in South Carolina is a clear indication that the Fetal Heartbeat Act is working – reflecting the values of our state and our commitment to defending the unborn.”
How strong is that commitment, though?
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Several top GOP leaders – including speaker Murrell Smith and judiciary chairman Weston Newton – were aggressively called out earlier this year by a national pro-life group they refused to advance a pro-life bill many of them sponsored. That legislation, H. 3457 – a.k.a. the ‘Human Life Protection Act’ – would have outlawed abortion in South Carolina completely (with no exceptions for rape, incest or fetal anomalies). Abortions would have only been legal in the Palmetto State in the event of “a medical emergency” or “to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.”
The group challenging Smith and Newton, Students for Life Action, was instrumental in ousting a trio of state senators last year who were insufficiently loyal to the pro-life cause.
“The Human Life Protection Act isn’t just another pro-life bill—it’s a test of courage,” two of the group’s leaders, Kristan Hawkins and Frances Floresca wrote in a guest column published on this media outlet last month. “And let’s be honest, the GOP leadership currently is getting an ‘F’ on this test.”
“To these Republican ‘leaders,’ we say: No more excuses, no more compromising family and pro-life values that you say you stand for,” Hawkins and Floresca added.
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RELATED | S.C. IS PRO-LIFE, GOP LEADERSHIP ISN’T
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Other pro-life groups have taken a different tack.
Lisa C. VanRiper is a board member of S.C. Citizens for Life – the Palmetto State’s largest pro-life group and an affiliate of National Right to Life, the nations’ largest pro-life movement. This group claims to support “the sanctity of life from conception,” however VanRiper has repeatedly aligned herself with the same GOP lawmakers who blocked the ‘Human Life Protection Act.’
VanRiper and her allies would seem to be taking a page out of the book of president Donald Trump, who took steps to water down GOP opposition to abortion in 2024 as part of his bid to attract more women voters.
The schism within the pro-life movement runs along the same fault line as the schism within the GOP majority at the S.C. State House – and is likely to erupt into open political warfare the closer we get to next spring’s partisan primary elections. Every member of the S.C. House of Representatives is up for reelection in 2026, and with multiple groups engaged on behalf of warring camps we expect this issue to factor prominently in those legislative races as well as the primaries for statewide elected office.
Count on FITSNews to keep close tabs on the abortion debate as it continues to rage within the state’s supermajority party…
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THE REPORT…
(SCDPH)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
Availability of the abortion pill via mail order has artificially depressed the numbers but they are down and anything that costs (un)Planned Parenthood money is a good thing.