Doctors claim their ‘religious rights’ violated by not being allowed to abort babies

A group of physicians is suing the state of South Carolina in an effort to challenge the state’s laws protecting preborn children from abortion. They claim the current exemptions in the law, which allow abortions to be committed due to health or fatal fetal anomalies, are too vague, and violate their religious freedom.

A press release from the Lawyering Project announced the lawsuit, with OB/GYN Drs. Dawn Bingham (a fellow and trainer for the pro-abortion American College of OB/GYNs, and former political candidate), Jane Doe, Patricia Seal, Jessica Tarleton (member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, with a mission to “ensure access to abortion care”), and Katee Wyant named as plaintiffs.

When two pro-life bills advanced through the legislature in 2022, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Bingham publicly opposed them. One of the bills required women to be informed about abortion pill reversal before undergoing a chemical abortion, while the other was intended to protect all preborn children from abortion.

“[T]his legislation is actively denying a woman’s future in exchange for one that is scripted for her by the state. Thus, denying her humanity and free choice to make healthcare decisions,” Bingham said at the time.

Bingham is a strident advocate for abortion. After the reversal of Roe, Bingham signed a joint statement as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) Vice Chair and Legislative Chair, South Carolina Section, District IV, condemning both the Dobbs decision and South Carolina’s Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. The statement called abortion “essential to reproductive health,” and “a standard of care, evidence-based component of reproductive health care.” It also states that “pregnancy is not a benign condition,” and adds that because pregnancy brings changes that can compromise health or even cause death, “There are situations where pregnancy termination in the form of an abortion is the only medical intervention that can preserve a patient’s health or save their life.”

Interestingly enough, South Carolina’s pro-life law, the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, signed in 2023, protects preborn children from abortions after detectable heartbeat, but contains several exceptions, including (as ACOG mentions above) life or health of the mother. It also allows abortions in cases of medical emergencies, fatal fetal diagnosis, and cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks gestation (if the crime was reported to police).

However, induced abortion — which intentionally and directly kills a defenseless and voiceless human being in the womb — cannot reasonably be considered “health care.” And surely there is no worse way to “deny the humanity” of a human being than to lobby for the right to destroy him:

The press release from the Lawyering Project says these exceptions routinely force doctors to “withhold abortion care from very ill or grieving patients” and “eviscerates the physicians’ religious and conscientious beliefs in honoring the inherent worth of every person, helping people in critical need, and placing others before themselves.”

Of course, the only way to truly uphold and honor the inherent worth of every person is to refrain from dehumanizing certain members of the human species and then fighting for the ‘right’ to kill them.

Only Bingham gave a quote about the lawsuit and her reasoning behind it, saying, “My faith commands me to respect the ability of my patients to direct the course of their lives. South Carolina’s Abortion Ban forces me to ignore the values and wishes of many of my patients, and for that reason, I am proud to join today’s challenge.” On her 2020 political campaign website, Bingham stated she served as an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg.

The South Carolina law has already survived several legal challenges — one from Planned Parenthood, in which the abortion corporation requested an allowance to commit abortions up to nine weeks gestation, and one through the South Carolina Supreme Court, which upheld the law in 2023.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]