Number of reported abortions more than doubles in SC, which borders state with ban
The number of abortions reported in South Carolina has more than doubled, according to data collected by the Guttmacher Institute.
The Guttmacher Institute is a research organization that supports abortion access. It looked at states that border those with bans, like South Carolina does with Georgia, following Roe v. Wade being overturned.
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The analysis found abortions increased by 124% in 2023. That’s up more than 3,200 from 2020.
South Carolina’s 6-week ban went into effect last month. The continued erosion of legal abortion access across the U.S. South came after Republican state lawmakers replaced the lone female on the South Carolina Supreme Court, Justice Kaye Hearn.
It was Hearn who wrote the majority’s lead opinion in January striking down the ban. The court ruled then that the law violated the state constitution’s right to privacy.
Hearn then reached the court’s mandatory retirement age, enabling the Republican-dominated legislature to put Gary Hill on what is now the nation’s only state Supreme Court with an entirely male bench.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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