On September 26, 2025, Guttmacher Institute Principal State Policy Advisor Kimya Forouzan, Esq., MPH, submitted testimony to the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee in opposition to Senate Bill 323 (SB323), the so-called “Unborn Child Protection Act.”
If enacted, SB323 would impose a total abortion ban with extremely narrow exceptions to save the life of the pregnant person or if the pregnancy threatens to cause substantial and irreversible harm. The bill also introduces far-reaching criminal penalties for health care providers, patients and even individuals who share information about abortion.
“SB323 is not about protecting health—it is about denying people care, criminalizing providers and putting South Carolinians’ lives at risk.” says Forouzan. “These measures will magnify the abortion access crisis in South Carolina, undermine maternal health and target young people who already face significant barriers to care.”
The testimony highlights the harmful impact that SB323 would have on patients and health care provision:
- Deepening the abortion access crisis: Abortion care in South Carolina is already severely restricted by the state’s six-week abortion ban, and data from Guttmacher’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study show that abortions in the state dropped by 28% in 2024 compared with 2023, before the ban went into effect. In 2024, more than 8,000 residents overcame enormous barriers to travel out of state for care. SB323 would effectively end in-person access to abortion care in South Carolina, unless provided under very narrow exceptions.
- Criminalizing medication abortion provision: The bill would ban essentially any action involving abortion pills, such as prescribing, delivering, advertising or possessing these medications. Individuals who commit any of these actions face felony charges and up to 30 years in prison. Guttmacher data show that medication abortion comprised 74% of clinician-provided abortions in South Carolina in 2023, a finding that does not reflect the full impact of the six-week ban.
- Targeting young people and their helpers: The bill makes helping a minor obtain an out-of-state abortion a felony—including for parents supporting their own child. It also repeals judicial bypass for minors seeking abortion care without parental consent and mandates sex education curricula include biased and inaccurate information about human development. Guttmacher data have demonstrated that young people already face unique barriers to accessing abortion care, and the provisions targeting youth would only exacerbate these hurdles.
- Attacking contraception access: Beyond abortion, SB323 defines contraception as the “prevention of fertilization” and contraceptive as anything that “prevents conception.” It also defines a “human embryo” as “a human being that begins as a fertilized egg or zygote.” These definitions are intended to cause confusion and may provide grounds for further attacks on in-vitro fertilization and contraceptive care.
- Politicizing pregnancy care: SB323 also regulates non-emergency interventions around premature birth, with language that is likely to generate confusion and subject pregnant people to invasive medical scrutiny, at a time when they may also be facing a devastating diagnosis.
“Every provision of SB323 is dangerous and unsupported by evidence,” says Forouzan. “It will only cause greater harm to South Carolinians’ health and wellbeing. South Carolina lawmakers should reject this dangerous bill and instead focus on protecting the reproductive health and rights of all South Carolinians.”