It’s the 21st century and women are still fighting for bodily autonomy as South Carolina enacts the Heartbeat Bill. The controversial bill criminalizes women for getting an #abortion once a pregnancy reaches six weeks and threatens physicians who perform the abortion with jail time. Unfortunately, many women do not even realize that they are pregnant by the six-week mark. Additionally, with South Carolina’s already strict restrictions regarding abortion, the Heartbeat Bill is another blow to women’s reproductive rights. Pro-choice citizens believe that the state policing women for their reproductive and life-altering decisions takes away their freedom. Many believe that the pro-life propaganda is a step backwards into the stone ages, and rightfully so. Legal abortion is favored by 77% of Americans. Many pro-choice protesters advocate that the abortion ban objectifies women as child-bearing vessels who should have no rights to govern their own body and freedom.

One of the most heart-wrenching facets of this bill is that it allows the authorities to investigate cases of stillbirths and miscarriages, resulting in grieving and hurting women being arrested and prosecuted. The act, which prosecutes women for neglect and connotes that miscarriages and stillbirths can have intentional sabotage motives, vilifies them. In short, women, who have already gone through the trauma of miscarriage, will now be investigated for foul play.

Organizations advocating for women's health, such as The American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists, oppose the abortion ban, citing a clear lack of medical understanding in the bill. The Heartbeat Bill is a bleak reversal of the landmark 1973 decision by the Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade case that granted legal abortion rights. 

The abortion ban immensely lacks reason for a progressive American society, and is facing various lawsuits in different states such as Iowa, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Kentucky as a result.

Progressive and health-associated professionals state that the science on this bill is highly flawed and lacks evidence. What the bill terms as 'heartbeat,' at six weeks is justcould be an electric current in a fetus that later becomes a heart. At six-weeks in a pregnancy, a cardiovascular system is not yet developed, which questions the accuracy of the bill in terms of its semantics and clinical research. From a legal perspective, the bill is unconstitutional since a fetus' viability is not determined until 24-28 weeks. Pro-choice advocates maintain that the imagery of feticide is an extreme ploy to kill the spirit of reproductive rights. Taking away the ownership of women’s bodies is regressive. The pro-life agenda prohibits women for exercising the rights over their own bodies.

America is built on the rights of every person to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While the rights of women’s sovereignty over their own bodies is being debated, no changes are being made to require men to use contraceptives or be involved in the life of a child who was the result of an unwanted pregnancy. Biologically, a woman can only deliver one child per year whereas a man can be responsible for 365 or more pregnancies in a year. Therefore, why is legislation focused on curbing the rights of women while not questioning the rights of men at all? 

If pro-life legislators truly want to reduce abortions, the answer is not to make them illegal. After all, abortions are more common where they are illegal. A more effective and mutually beneficial solution would be equipping individuals and families with the resources necessary to raise a child. Initiatives such as reforming the foster care system, better access to birth control, accessible child care, universal income, medicare and medicaid for struggling low-income families, and greater accountability for men responsible for the birth of a child would reduce the need for abortions and benefit all sides of society. 

Pro-life advocates argue that life begins at conception and a child has the right to live. However, if a child is born with a serious medical condition, ends up in foster care, is abused by irresponsible adults, has no access to healthcare services or income, commits a crime out of desperation for survival, and is given the death penalty, what kind of life was made available to them? Pro-life should be pro- universal healthcare, access to birth control, improved social services, and against the death penalty. Pro-life should extend beyond the womb to children and humans currently in the world rather than seeking to control the bodies of women.

Forced pregnancy is a war crime identified by the Geneva Convention. This ban criminalizes health professionals and women alike for exercising their reproductive rights and is not the solution. Bans such as these are marginalizing the health system and will push women towards extreme and dangerous means if they cannot utilize safe and legal ones. This is a step in the wrong direction that will jeopardize women’s physical and mental health in the long run. The right to legal abortion signifies freedom and progress, whereas abortion bans are intended to crush the spirits of American women and the freedom of choice the country states it believes in.