Lawmakers in South Carolina are debating what would be the strictest abortion ban in America, and if passed as is, would threaten women who get abortions with 30 years in prison. 

The state senate’s medical affairs subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday for S. 323, known as the Unborn Child Protection Act, which would criminalize abortion and impose harsh penalties for violators.

South Carolina currently bans abortion after six weeks into a pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, a fatal fetal diagnosis, or to protect the life of the mother.

Under the new law, abortion would be illegal from the moment of conception. It would eliminate all but the exception to save the mother’s life. 

The bill also creates a new felony charge for those who help a woman get an abortion, with a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. A woman who undergoes the procedure could also face up to 30 years in prison.

Before Roe v. Wade, there were laws that outlawed abortion and threatened prison sentences. But states typically exempted women from the harshest penalties and prison time and reserved those punishments for abortion providers. An 1849 law banning abortion in Wisconsin, for example, specifically exempted women who obtained an abortion from fines or prison time. And in the middle of the 20th century, laws typically treated women who underwent the procedure as “victims.”

If South Carolina’s bill is passed, it would ban abortion-inducing drugs and make it illegal to give money to organizations that perform abortions. 

Similar bills have failed to win enough support in the legislature in previous years. However, during the 2024 Republican primaries, three Republican state senators who opposed stricter restrictions lost their seats, and the chamber has moved further to the right. 

The discussion of the bill drew a crowd of hundreds of protesters outside the statehouse on Wednesday. The demonstration featured a 20-foot inflatable IUD. 

During the hearing, the executive director, Matt Brock, of Equal Protection South Carolina, a group that advocates for abortion restrictions, told lawmakers that the bill could go even further with its restrictions.

“[It] still falls short of providing equal protection,” Mr. Brock said. “A lot of people here today tell you that this bill goes too far, I’m here to tell you … S. 323 doesn’t go far enough.”

The advocacy director of the ACLU of South Carolina, Courtney Thomas, called S. 323 “unconstitutional.”

Ms. Thomas said, “This bill would criminalize medical care, invade our privacy, and place unconstitutional restrictions on speech, travel, and association.”

In its current form, S. 323 has also received opposition from some anti-abortion groups. An anti-abortion group, the Palmetto Family Alliance, released a statement saying it is unable to support the legislation due to “several provisions of this  bill, most notably the criminalization of women.”

The chairman of the medical affairs subcommittee, Richard Cash, said on Wednesday that the panel will hold another hearing to discuss changes to the bill, though he did not set a date for the next hearing.