South Carolina Abortion Center Closes; Abortions Drop 50 % As General Assembly Enacts Pro-life Legislation

By Holly Gatling, Executive Director
South Carolina Citizens for Life

The July closing of one of four abortion facilities in South Carolina has been attributed directly to enforcement of the state's Abortion Clinic Regulation Act; and the number of abortions has dropped more than 50 percent during the 13-year period in which the state legislature passed seven life- protecting laws.

A July 18 article in the Greenville News reports that the cost of South Carolina's Abortion Clinic Regulation Act drove the Palmetto State Medical Center abortion business "out of business."

"The Palmetto State Medical Center on Laurens Road shut down this month because it was no longer economically viable," the paper reported.

An attorney for abortionist William Lynn, the abortion business owner, said the newly imposed state abortion clinic regulations shut down the business.

Meanwhile, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control released statistics for 2001 showing a continuing, steady decline in the number of abortions since 1988, the year abortions peaked at 14,133. In 2001, the number had dropped to 7,014.

"This is a huge success," said Lisa Van Riper, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life.

"When I look at these numbers, I not only see the babies saved, but the women saved from the anguish of abortion, the fathers of potentially aborted babies, and the family that would be involved."

Mrs. Van Riper attributes the remarkable decline in abortions to the collective efforts of the pro-life grassroots movement, including SCCL's legislative agenda that has promoted 10 life- protecting laws between 1989 and 2002 (seven have been enacted into law), the work of crisis pregnancy centers, and the intensive educational efforts of pro-life pastors and other moral educators.

A 1996 article in the Journal of Health Economics concludes that South Carolina's Parental Consent Act is "associated with a decline of 10 percentage points in the probability of abortion among non-black minors of 16 years of age."

In addition to the Parental Consent Act and the Abortion Clinic Regulation Act, the SC General Assembly has passed, the Woman's Right to Know Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Physician-Assisted Suicide Ban Act, the Safe Haven for Abandoned Newborns Act, and the Choose Life License Plate Act.

SCCL's graph shows the steady decline in the number of abortions over a 13 year period when the General Assembly passed or considered life-protecting laws.

SCCL Executive Committee member Wayne Cockfield of Florence, SC, said, "The chart demonstrates that legislation and political action save babies' lives. We have to elect pro-life lawmakers to get pro-life legislation passed.

"When we get pro-life legislation passed we save babies' lives and the lives of the medically vulnerable and fragile," he said. Mr. Cockfield is an anti-euthanasia activist who has lobbied at the national and state levels for laws that protect medically vulnerable people, including the elderly, the poor, and the disabled from death by euthanasia. He was prominently involved in helping to pass South Carolina's Physician-Assisted Suicide Ban Act.