The legislature of South Carolina, along with many other states, returned to session earlier this month. The issue of abortion emerged almost immediately as a core point of debate — and as a central point of tension between the Republican establishment and the conservative grassroots.
There is a clear divide between the establishment and the grassroots on the question of abortion. The former wants to continue regulating abortion as health care. The latter increasingly wants to finally abolish abortion as murder.
South Carolina still has several abortion clinics offering surgical abortions, even as other conservative states have managed to stop most abortions from occurring in brick-and-mortar abortion facilities.
There is an evident desire among South Carolina grassroots conservatives not only to shutter abortion clinics, but also to stop the increasing flow of abortion pills into the state.
In the first week of the newly reconvened legislature, two bills purporting to address these problems were heard in the South Carolina House, but they offered very different approaches toward the abortion holocaust.
H. 4760, which is backed by the Republican establishment and their allies in major pro-life establishment groups, seeks to punish the suppliers of abortion pills. The legislation would attempt to impose varying degrees of criminal penalties on individuals who supply the substances. But among other serious flaws in the legislation, pregnant women who order and take abortion pills would receive blanket immunity protecting their conduct.
The bill indeed says that “any act taken or omission by a pregnant woman with regard to her own unborn child” shall not be “construed to create the crime of criminal abortion by means of an abortion-inducing drug.” Such provisions in the legislation effectively block prosecutors from holding women who willfully murder their preborn babies accountable under the law.
H. 3537, which is supported by the conservative grassroots and Christian anti-abortion organizations, would meanwhile establish equal protection under the law for preborn babies.
Watch as @bradleypierce exhorts South Carolina lawmakers to establish equal protection of the laws for preborn babies.
“God demands that murder be outlawed. God does not demand that mere methods, like pills, be regulated.” pic.twitter.com/liz3tQyEL3
— Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) January 14, 2026
The law would simply “protect the lives of preborn persons with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the lives of born persons,” thereby securing “the right to life and equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization” in the state of South Carolina.
There is no other Christian stance on abortion that can be maintained without compromising core principles. Since preborn babies are equally valuable as born persons and equally made in the image of God, their lives should be equally protected in the same way as all other human life — and their murder should be met with equally severe punishment.
🔥 @HarrisForSC describes why the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act is the only bill in the state that would truly abolish abortion.
🎥: @WIS10 pic.twitter.com/R2jyeSlUVb
— Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) January 13, 2026
South Carolina has a Republican governing trifecta in their state government and supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature. They have the political power to enact any anti-abortion law they desire without fear of interference from Planned Parenthood or the Democrats.
Rather than rallying behind the bill of equal protection, they have been rallying behind the much weaker attempted regulation on abortion pills.
When both bills were heard in a two-hour subcommittee meeting in the South Carolina House earlier this month, there were hundreds of abortion activists present to testify against both bills. There were also hundreds of Christians who appeared to testify in favor of the equal protection bill. But almost nobody from the grassroots was present to testify for the regulation bill.
We were played this week. See this massive line of those waiting for hours for a chance to speak on two abortion bills. We walked through it and talked to people and 95% of those who came to support preborn babies were there to testify AGAINST the establsihment’s chemical… pic.twitter.com/S01LH22v9m
— Equal Protection SC (@EPSouthCarolina) January 16, 2026
Republican leaders of the subcommittee nevertheless spent more than three-quarters of the hearing time on the regulation bill, despite the evident lack of enthusiasm from the conservative base. They burned time allowing testimony from leaders of pro-life establishment groups, as well as testimony from abortion activists.
By the end of the subcommittee hearing, the regulation bill was advanced, and the equal protection bill was left pending without a vote. There were almost no grassroots Christians afforded the opportunity by Republican leaders to testify on the latter.
Since the Jay Jordan and Weston Newton knew they did not have public support, and virtually NO ONE from the public signed up to testify in support of their Bill, they chose to not allow those who waited for hours to testify, but these 5 individuals. These 5 individuals are… pic.twitter.com/ltKEzbStPC
— Equal Protection SC (@EPSouthCarolina) January 19, 2026
The need to abolish abortion still exists in states like South Carolina. The inflow of abortion pills, and in some cases the presence of brick-and-mortar abortion facilities, means that the murder of preborn babies continues by the thousands every single year.
Republican and pro-life leaders are nevertheless delaying the only efforts that would end the abortion holocaust. They were presented with legislation to abolish abortion in South Carolina once and for all — and despite having the political power to advance the bill, they intentionally avoided the effort in favor of legislation they knew would functionally protect abortion.
The struggle between the conservative grassroots and the Republican establishment has been playing out in South Carolina and many other states. This struggle will determine the survival of liberty in many ways. But on the issue of abolishing abortion, the stakes are a matter of life and death — for countless thousands of preborn babies and for the soul of our nation as a whole.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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