CHARLESTON, S.C. — Taylor Shelton enjoys time with friends, reading, running and cooking with her partner.
The Lowcountry resident connects to spirituality through meditation in yoga. She hikes and enjoys the mountains, but considers herself more of a beach girl. Shelton is just like any other 27-year-old woman, except in the last year, she became the face of the battle for abortion and women’s health in South Carolina.
She wasn’t ready to have a child. The hurdles she had to jump through caused her physical, financial and emotional hardships. Shelton took precautions to prevent pregnancy.
She had a copper IUD for nearly seven years, which is supposed to be 99.9% effective. But it wasn’t foolproof, and the Pinehurst, North Carolina, native was in a position she had tried to avoid with a quickly approaching deadline.
A few weeks after the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the state’s fetal heartbeat law, touted by state lawmakers to reduce the number of abortions and prevent people from using abortion as birth control, Shelton found out she was pregnant and started to scramble on what to do next. The earliest Shelton could get an appointment in South Carolina was after the six-week mark of her pregnancy. So, frustrated and in physical pain, Shelton traveled to North Carolina three times to terminate the pregnancy she didn’t plan.
“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Shelton said, when talking about the abortion. “So it is what it is. But I’m grateful that I .