A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the southeastern U.S. has providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for an already severely constrained region.
South Carolina joined southern states imposing severe restrictions on abortion procedures on Thursday, anticipating legal challenges from providers when the governor signed a bill banning most abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy. The law takes effect immediately.
Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement: “This is a great day to live in South Carolina, but the battle is not over. We stand ready to defend this legislation against any challenge and believe we will success.”
Pending bans in North Carolina and Florida at various stages of pregnancy — states that have resisted broader access to the procedure — threaten to further delay abortions as appointments pile up and doctors grapple with new restrictions.
“There’s really no way the whole ecosystem of providing abortions can manage this,” said Planned Parenthood South Atlantic chairwoman Jenny Black.
Black, who oversees the group’s work in North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and parts of Virginia, said providers must quickly determine how to comply with pending laws amid “decreasing access to abortion across the South.” She expects the new restrictions will exacerbate stressors in North Carolina’s system already experiencing lengthy waiting periods due to an influx of patients from Georgia and Tennessee.
Abortion is severely restricted in much of the South, including bans throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia Abortion during pregnancy. In Georgia, this is only allowed for the first six weeks.
A report released by Planned Parenthood in early April found that abortions are increasing near the states with the most restrictive restrictions but where abortion remains largely legal. Florida and North Carolina, among the states with the largest increases, are also states where new restrictions are pending.
Most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned in North Carolina starting July 1, while Florida’s six-week ban will only go into effect after the state’s Supreme Court upholds the state’s current 15-week ban.
South Carolina has also proven to be a leading destination for people seeking abortions. Provisional data from the state Department of Health showed an increase in out-of-state patients 22 weeks after the state Supreme Court overturned previous restrictions and legalized abortion.
A new law signed by South Carolina’s governor will change that, said Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College. Myers, who studies the impact of fertility policies, said limited evidence suggests that about half of those who want an abortion will not be able to meet the six-week threshold.
“This could end up sending many desperate people further afield to seek abortions and lead to even more congestion in the remaining facilities that accept abortions,” Myers said.
Many state legislatures took the action in their first regular session since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion protections. Over the past two months, Republican officials in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida have pushed Virginia into a place of relative easing, bringing it closer to becoming a regional outlier.
Anti-abortion groups have long welcomed the wave of state-level activism. Caitlin Connors, Southern Regional Director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, celebrated recent legislative reforms made possible by last summer’s ruling.
“We’ve officially entered an era in which states that try to pass anti-abortion legislation — laws that protect unborn children and that will also provide services for mothers, families, and babies — are ultimately able to enact, rather than under the law. The strangle point of the Roe v. Wade decision,” Connors said.
The changing landscape also increases uncertainty among providers, preventing them from expanding services, and may deter some patients from getting abortions, Myers said, as doctors weigh what is allowed and what is not. Allowed.
Erica Pettigrew, a family physician in North Carolina, said the new restrictions will make it harder for her to help patients use the system. While North Carolina Republicans pitched the new 12-week limit as a compromise change, Pettigrew pointed to other provisions that make it more restrictive.
The new hurdle requires women to see a doctor in person at least 72 hours before surgery. The three-day waiting period could previously be initiated by phone. The law also requires doctors to schedule follow-up visits for women undergoing medical abortions, adding to difficulties for women traveling from other states.
The rules will make it more difficult to advise patients on their options, especially as wait times span two to four weeks in some cases, she said.
Other delays may be due to what Pettigrew said were unclear exceptions for certain life-threatening situations.
“Right now we’re in this horrible purgatory of trying to figure out how to explain it, how can we obey the law,” Pettigrew said. “There are a lot of unknowns.”