Supreme Court: South Carolina Can Keep Data on Women Who Abort

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 cleared the way for South Carolina to collect and keep records of women who have had abortions. The decision will allow the state more oversight of abortion clinics.

The court refused to hear a challenge to the state's law, which allows the South Carolina health department to store medical records from clinics and abortion doctors.

The court's action lets the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion stand.

“The courts have said that this is not burdensome,” said Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life. “The U.S. Supreme Court, which is not a pro-life court, agreed.”

South Carolina is the only state where the health department maintains abortion patients’ medical records. That has supporters of legal abortion upset.

“Patients seeking reproductive health services in South Carolina can no longer be guaranteed of the confidentiality of their health-care decisions or their medical records,” said Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which argued the case before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But Trey Walker, a spokesman for the state's attorney general, said the regulations passed constitutional muster.

“The state regulations are reasonable health and safety measures that do not infringe on anyone's constitutional rights,” he said.

The case arose from a 1995 law that imposed new and stricter regulations on abortion facilities in South Carolina. The state claims the regulations were passed to improve standards and make the procedure safer.

Gatling said the abortion clinics themselves were the cause for the regulations.

“In 1992, two women filed a complaint with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control,” Gatling said. “Lori Saunders and Celeste Danish revealed that the clinic owner, the late Dr. Jesse Floyd, used a common kitchen sink disposal to grind up the bodies of aborted babies, some well past the 12th week of development, and flush these human remains into the public water system.”

One woman testified that she saw a dog in the procedure room.

The health department told the two abortion clinic workers that nothing could be done because there was no law to regulate abortion clinics.

A three-part investigative story by the CBS affiliate in Charleston caught the attention of South Carolina citizens and within two years a regulation bill became law.

Supporters of abortion challenged not just the medical records collection but also the health regulations of the abortion clinics.

That case was resolved in 2001 when the U.S. Supreme Court let the lower-court ruling stand. On Aug. 15, 2000, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled: “The regulations serve a valid state interest and are little more than a codification of national medical and abortion association recommendations designed to ensure the health and appropriate care of women seeking abortion.”

So far, however, South Carolina remains the only state with basic health regulations of abortion facilities.

Other States

On the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court's action, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed legislation to regulate abortion clinics in Kansas.

After sailing through the Kansas Senate, the veto override fell short of the two-thirds support needed in the Kansas House on May 2. The abortion clinic regulation bill garnered 73 votes, falling 11 votes short of the threshold of 84.

Kansas House Rep. Peggy Long, R-Madison, said, “We need to address the problems occurring at abortion clinics.”

In South Carolina, Gatling said other state pro-life organizations are interested in her state's legislation, but little action except Kansas has so far occurred.

The passing of the abortion regulation law in the Palmetto State is just one in a string of victories for the pro-life community. When abortions there peaked at 14,133 in 1988, the South Carolina Citizens for Life began aggressive lobbying of a parental-consent bill. It became law two years later. A Women's Right to Know Act was passed the same year as the abortion clinic regulation bill.

From 1997 to 2001, every year saw a new pro-life bill became law in South Carolina. The trend started with a ban on partial-birth abortions and then a ban on physician-assisted suicides in 1998. South Carolina also passed an Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 1999. A new law provided safe havens for abandoned newborns in 2001. Also in 2001, the state authorized “Choose Life" license plates.

By that year, the number of abortions in South Carolina fell to 7,014, a decrease of 50%, which Gatling attributes to the legislation enacted into law.

“What has happened,” she said, “is that the South Carolina legislature and the South Carolina pro-life community have set the bar for other states to follow.”

Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.