A woman in South Carolina who was arrested in February for taking pills to terminate her pregnancy had her charges dropped, according to the Post &Courier Greenville.
The 13th Circuit Solicitor’s Office did not prosecute the woman because of insufficient evidence or another “legal issue,” the outlet reported citing court documents.
The charge against the 33-year-old woman stemmed from her visit to a hospital in Greenville South Carolina in October 2021 with labor pains. She reportedly told staff that she took an abortion pill to terminate her pregnancy.
She later gave birth to a stillborn fetus of 25 weeks in the hospital bathroom, according to a Greenville County Coroner’s Office report.
Hospital staff notified police about the incident and a warrant was issued for her arrest in September 2022 after investigators determined she self-administered the pill illegally two days before the stillborn fetus’ birth. She was arrested in February 2023
South Carolina is one of three states that criminalizes self-managed abortions even before the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The woman was arrested for self-administering an abortion, which at the time was a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of up to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine.
However, the crime increased to a felony, with a two-year minimum prison sentence and a $5,000 fine after the Republican controlled state legislature passed a six-week abortion ban which was signed into law in May and upheld by the state’s all-male Supreme Court in August.
Still, there are Republicans in the state legislature who believe the six-week ban did not go far enough and is considering pushing for a total ban on abortion in the 2024 legislative session.
