A 33-year-old woman from Greenville, South Carolina, was arrested this week for allegedly self-administering an abortion pill, which ended the life of her nearly six-month-old unborn baby in 2021, Greenville News reported Thursday.
The woman allegedly told medical professionals that she had taken a pill to end her pregnancy when she was taken to St. Francis Hospital in October of 2021. The woman later gave birth to a stillborn baby of 25 weeks and 4 days, according to the report.
Current South Carolina law prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and abortion must be done in the presence of a physician or certified hospital set up during the second trimester, the report notes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also notably set the permissible gestational age of the baby for which a girl or woman may take abortion drugs at ten weeks in 2016. Before 2016, the permissible age was seven weeks.
Investigators concluded their investigation and obtained a warrant nearly a year later on September 20, 2022. Greenville Police Department spokesman Jonathan Bragg said the hospital had notified police about the incident. Bragg also said the woman posted a $2,500 surety bond and has been released from jail.
The South Carolina Legislature has been trying to pass stronger pro-life laws, including a six-week heartbeat abortion ban which was permanently blocked by the state Supreme Court this January. After that decision, the state Senate passed another six-week ban, which Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said he hopes will survive future litigation.
“The House passed its version of the bill that would ban all abortions after conception,” according to the report. “Both chambers’ bills have exceptions for rape and incest and place the burden of criminalization on physicians, but the Senate has maintained that it does not have the votes to ban abortions for anything less than six weeks.”
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