After upholding abortion rights for nearly half a century, Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court for its “abuse of judicial authority” in June 2022. The decision was of great concern to Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who believe the decision gives young women “fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, who sided with the majority, perceived it as a justified reversal. This bill presents American women with a wicked end to their bodily autonomy and the end of doctors’ proper practice.
The devastating outcome of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization removed constitutional protection for abortions. Since the decision, there has been an increase in abortions, from 1.05 million to 1.14 million in the first two years. Additionally, South Carolina has taken a new approach, one that would intensify the consequences of obtaining an abortion, proposing Senate Bill 323. The approval of this bill would strip women of the possibility of obtaining safe abortions and medical resources. Most importantly, women who obtain an abortion would be charged with homicide.
It is ludicrous to charge a woman who receives an abortion with a felony equivalent to killing a person with thoughts and feelings of their own. Executive Director of Palmetto State Abortion Funds Ashlyn Preaux explained, “If passed, this would relegate everyone who becomes pregnant to the control of the state.”
The way the government has weaponized abortions has caused critical disadvantages for women, not only through abortion bans but through other essential resources like birth control, Plan B, in vitro fertilization treatments and charges on doctors who assess stillbirths and miscarriages. Women who can not provide the means necessary to bring a new life into the world should not be neglected by the government through the invasion of their bodies.
Because a vast majority of states consider life to begin at conception, abortion bans could dispose of IVF, as it “poses a concrete threat to the routine practice of IVF,” said Judith Daar, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University.
Not only does SB 323 impose drastic measures on women in need of abortions, but it also impedes on the fruitful process for women aiming to form a family. To intensify the severity of an abortion ban, doctors are condemned to face criminal charges for discarding embryos if the bill is successfully passed. Because this ban lays crucial fundamentals that are met at the expense of women and professional doctors, it is pivotal to highlight the lack of genuine intent behind South Carolina’s enactment of abortion bans.
The idea of continuing to impede women from proper healthcare shows, once again, the government’s desire to bring women down in ways that leave them vulnerable and helpless. While many Americans find delight in this ban, they tend to forget that it does not affect only women seeking abortion, but also those who face birth challenges. No woman should feel intimidated by legislation that goes against their needs or their personal desires; instead, they should be supported and uplifted by democracy.
