‘Intolerable:’ Florence doctor among five statewide challenging South Carolina abortion ban in federal court
FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) — Five South Carolina physicians want a federal judge to let them continue performing abortions in certain situations beyond the state’s current nine-week threshold.
Among those suing is Jessica Tarleton, a Florence obstetrician and current vice-chairwoman of the American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists’ South Carolina chapter.
A 43-page lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court’s Charleston division says barring doctors from doing so “violates their rights to religious freedom and freedom from unduly vague laws under the U.S. Constitution,” according to a news release from The Lawyering Project, who is representing the plaintiffs.
“Plaintiff physicians have long held sincere religious and conscientious beliefs
commanding them to respect the inherent worth of every person, help people in critical need, and place others before themselves,” the complaint says. “For plaintiffs, that includes using their medical training to honor a patient’s request to end her pregnancy when it threatens to profoundly harm her.”
In addition to state Attorney General Alan Wilson, the lawsuit names all 16 solicitors as defendants, since they can bring criminal charges against providers who violate the law.
Since 2023, it’s been illegal for any abortions to be performed after nine weeks — with penalties including up to two years in prison and $10,000 fines — but with exceptions if a mother’s life is in danger, fatal fetal anomalies or for victims of rape or incest who report it within 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Tarleton and others argue language in those exceptions are so vague they’re impossible to interpret.
“They often chill plaintiffs from providing abortion care to patients who need it to preserve their health or those seeking to spare a child diagnosed with a fatal anomaly needless suffering,” the complaint says. “Because these exceptions are so vague, when plaintiffs do provide abortion care to such patients, they are frequently consumed with fear of criminal prosecution, incarceration and the loss of their livelihood.”
Beyond her religious and medical beliefs in access to abortion care, Tarleton’s involvement comes from personal experience. In 2021, she went into preterm labor and sustained a surgical complication that led to her daughter being born with hypoxic brain damage.
“Dr. Tarleton and her husband chose to give their daughter palliative care until she died twelve days after birth. It meant everything to them to be able to care for their daughter in that way,” the lawsuit says. “Seeing other parents stripped of the ability to make decisions to avoid the suffering of their own children is intolerable.”
The suit comes at a time when state lawmakers are expected to take an even more aggressive anti-abortion stance.
Several Grand Strand and Pee Dee state House members are backing a total abortion ban that promises to be a centerpiece of the Republican supermajority agenda in Columbia when the legislature gavels back in on Tuesday.
The “Human Life Protection Act” would criminalize all abortions except in cases of incest, rape or to prevent the mother’s death. Doctors who break the law are subject to fines of up to $10,000 and two years in prison.
Providers would still be able to offer in vitro fertilization and birth control measure
Last year, South Carolina saw 8,187 abortions performed, according to state Department of Health and Environmental Control data.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or restrictions, and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access.
Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and South Carolina and two others have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy.
