Doctors files lawsuit against South Carolina to allow abortions in good conscience
Conscience clauses have historically been weaponized to limit abortion. Now, a group of plaintiffs in a recently filed lawsuit say it should allow them to.
(Dr. Dawn Bingham)
Conscience clauses have long been part of the antiabortion strategy for limiting the number of abortions performed in medical settings. But now, doctors who support abortion rights are using them to justify performing them in states where it’s forbidden.
According to the traditional argument of these laws, which Democrats have both supported and opposed, doctors who oppose abortion politically and morally don’t have to give them in situations where a woman wants or needs one. In a lawsuit filed in January, several South Carolina doctors flipped the argument and said their consciences demand that authorities allow reproductive treatment. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the ban.
Dr. Dawn Bingham, an OB/GYN in the state, joined several other doctors as plaintiffs.
“It always seemed to me that if you can deny care based on conscience, you should be able to provide care based on conscience as well from a religious perspective, from an ethical perspective, and certainly from years of training and dedication in patient care,” Bingham said.
Bingham is an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, where she offers scripture readings and communion to other parishioners. The Presbyterian Church's national governing body first supported legalized abortion in 1970 and has consistently reaffirmed that position since.
Bingham said that her Presbyterian faith holds that each pregnant person is their moral agent and can make independent decisions about their body and bodily autonomy.
“It's always a problem for my conscience not to be able to provide options to somebody that are standard of care, evidence-based options,” Bingham said.
Bingham discovered and contacted the Lawyering Project, a legal group that fights for reproductive rights in court. They handled the court filings.
In 2023, South Carolina banned abortion past nine weeks. It has a health exception, fetal anomalies, and situations involving rape and incest. Bingham and the other plaintiffs argue that the health and fatal fetal anomaly exceptions are so unclear that they often chill doctors from providing abortion care to patients who need it to preserve their health or those seeking to spare a child diagnosed with a fatal anomaly needless suffering.
Because these exceptions are so vague, when doctors do provide abortion care to such patients, they are frequently consumed with fear of criminal prosecution, incarceration, and the loss of their livelihood, according to the complaint.
“Having to deny or delay abortion care for very ill, grieving, or traumatized patients eviscerates Plaintiffs’ core religious convictions and causes them severe emotional distress,” the complaint reads.
Thank you Dr Bingham!! Women need advocates like you and others fighting for them to make choices right for themselves!🥰❤️