More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
Interview with Jeannie Smith of the Coastline CPC
A story of grief turning to grit can change how we think about life, law, and love. Dr. Robert Jackson sits down with Jeannie Smith—once a patient in a crisis pregnancy center, now the executive director of Coastline Women’s Center—to trace how one decision reshaped her future and why she now advocates for South Carolina’s SB 323. Jeannie opens up about the pain of an abortion in her past, the miraculous healing that followed, and the calling that led her to leave a medical career and start a center from scratch. Her message is firm but compassionate: laws with real consequences deter abortions, protect unborn children, and spare women from decades of silent regret.
We walk through the heart of SB 323, sometimes called a personhood or unborn child protection bill, and why Jeannie supports “teeth” in the legislation. She argues that when clinics and prescribers face real penalties, abortion access collapses and decisions change. Dr. Jackson shares a patient’s thirty‑year secret and the way post‑abortion counseling restored her hope, underscoring the often invisible psychological and spiritual toll. Jeannie challenges the assumption that all women seeking abortion are victims, noting how online research and abortion pills increase isolation and deepen trauma. The conversation stays grounded in two commitments: moral clarity through law and everyday compassion through practical care.
If you live in South Carolina, we invite you to contact your state senator and ask them to support SB 323 without amendments. For more information, visit personhood.sc. To volunteer, donate, or find help before or after an abortion, go to Coastline Women Center dot org. If this conversation moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help others find real stories and real hope.
https://www.coastlinewomenscenter.org/
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician Dr. Robert Jackson and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up because the doctor is in.
Speaker:Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty dusty scrapbook. Well, I'm delighted today to have online with me Jeannie Smith, who is uh executive director of a crisis pregnancy center down in the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina. Miss Jeannie, welcome to More Than Medicine.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, Dr. Jackson. I'm glad to be here with you.
Speaker:Well, I'm delighted to have you, and I'm going to start off by asking you to tell my listeners a little bit about yourself, uh, about your family and how you came to be involved with the Crisis Pregnancy Center down there.
Speaker 3:Sure, I'd love to. So um I actually have a medical background. I I worked in physical therapy, and uh many years ago I um was faced with an unplanned pregnancy and uh made the wrong decision. And it would be many years later, after going through so much um trauma and pain from that loss, that I found myself uh in a crisis pregnancy center. And uh I received an amazing amount of healing, just transformation, miraculous healing, actually. And um, it really touched me in a deep way, and I wanted to give back my life and and serve the Lord. And so uh I laid down my career and felt called by God uh into ministry to help other women um not have to walk through, you know, um the devastation that I had walked through. And that's initially what brought me into the movement itself was uh my own personal story. And uh I served locally in a pregnancy center um in the upstate and uh began to help clients, uh, walk through counseling sessions and then I began to work in abortion recovery and just had a great passion for that, you know, because God had just miraculously healed my heart and saved my marriage, and um I was able to honor my child and just heal from so much. And then the Lord called me to move geographically and uh to start a pregnancy crisis center. So my family and I, we we moved and we uh moved down to the coast uh to Ori County, and we uh be knew no one here. It was just a complete faith journey, and we came and we started a um pregnancy center similar to the one where I walked in and received healing.
Speaker:Well, how about that? I didn't even know all that, Miss Jeannie. You you're educating me in a whole new area there. I just did not even know. Well, bless your heart, and I'm thankful to hear all that. You're gonna have to tell me some more about that another time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there there's a there's a great story there. Uh and you know, I have a wonderful family. My husband uh watched uh, you know, the Lord heal my heart and as I said restore our marriage. And so he is a nurse. He comes uh from a nurse background and he has uh served many years. He was in the military, also served in hospice care, and so he also has a a great um you know love for the sanctity of life. And when he saw how God healed me, he was just all in. So God called us as a couple and as a family, and um you know that's that's what we've been doing, fighting that battle uh for life and ministering to women and children. We've been doing that for uh 14 years.
Speaker:Well that's amazing. That is absolutely amazing. All right, well now I I came to know about you because I I heard your testimony down in Columbia at the Senate Medical Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Senate Bill 323, which is um called by various things, but some folks call it the the personhood bill, uh but it's Senate rich Senator Richard Cash's bill that uh would severely limit abortion in South Carolina. I'm strongly in favor of his bill. And so my question to you is how how did you get to to be in Columbia testifying about that bill and what is it about the bill that intrigues you and wants and and and caused you to be in favor of that bill?
Speaker 3:Well, um, if I can back up just uh a little bit, uh uh Richard had called me, Senator Cash had called me back in 2022 because he had had another bill. It was actually, I believe, if I recall, a trigger bill, uh right after Roe versus Wade. That one was uh SB 988, which was the Equal Protection for Unborn Babies Act, and he had called and asked uh me to testify for that. And I was you know thrilled to testify for it because I saw it as a way to end abortion in our state. Um that was quite an experience for me. And uh as I testified for that bill uh back in 22, God began to reveal some things to me in the pro-life movement uh itself. Um and so, you know, then we fast forward to this new bill, SB 323, as you mentioned, the Unborn Child Protection Act. And Senator Cash called me back again and asked me, would I come and testify for this bill? And he began to explain to me what it was, and I asked him to send it to me so I can read it. And I read both those bills. And I have to say that uh when he originally asked me, you know, three years prior to testify for this bill, uh, I had to really get before the Lord and I had to seek the Lord. Uh being a post-abortive woman myself and founding a center and laying down my life to to serve women and children, that these bills have what we call teeth in them that would uh you know bring great um severity, uh, you know, restrictions to end abortion um and and in which it needs to be done. And so with that being said, uh there would be, you know, uh women would be held accountable, uh, abortionists would be held accountable for the act of murder, which is what you know, taking innocent life in the womb is. And so uh I wept. I I I I remember just laying before the Lord and weeping over this because it was very difficult uh then back in 22 for me to make the decision to come and testify for that bill. I I knew that that would be difficult for me from my position as an executive director um of a of a pregnancy center, but yet that's what the Lord told me to do. And the Holy Spirit just said, you go speak on behalf of the unborn. And so I went out of obedience uh to do that. And it was the same for this bill as well. Uh, whenever he was uh asked me to speak on behalf of this bill, it was it was honestly uh yes, I called and discussed it with him, but it was an easy yes for me. One, because again, obedience uh to the Lord. And you know, for me, it's it's it's clear. I'm I remember, I'm able to recall on a daily basis why I ever stepped into this ministry to begin with, why I sacrificed everything and laid everything down, you know, left everything I knew to start a pregnancy center. It it's for the unborn. That's right. Uh yes, the passion in my story is is has a great deal with that, but it's it's for the unborn. It's to end the slaughtering and the murdering of of these babies and to rewrite the narrative from motherhood that it's not a bless. I mean, it's not a curse, it's not a burden, it's a blessing. It's a blessing. Um, and just try to speak life into a culture that is, you know, clearly one of one of death. And um, so that's why I went and testified for the bill because I believe that, you know, uh legislature bills, they're put in place, they're supposed to be put in place to protect us, to create boundaries. And, you know, everything with God is in boundaries. You know, God puts things in boundaries uh to protect us, and that's what this bill should do. And I see it as a way to not only protect uh the babies, which is my priority, my mindset, but also to protect the women because I see all the trauma that they walk through on the other side of it.
Speaker:Yep, you're right. Well, what what she's referring to, I'm talking to my listeners now, is that this bill has teeth in it because it assigns criminal penalties to the abortion doctors who perform the abortion procedures, and it has criminal penalties for the mothers who acquiesce to the murdering of their unborn children. And as I've said before, it will only take one abortion doctor going to prison and one mother who agrees to the killing of her unborn child being uh assigned criminal penalties to completely close every abortion clinic in South Carolina. And and I'm just telling you, no abortion doctor is going to risk his medical license by going to jail. And once this bill is signed into law, every abortion clinic in this state is going to close. They're not going to send any doctor to prison. And no woman is going to go to prison either. Because as soon as this law becomes signed, as soon as this bill is signed into law, every abortion clinic in this state will close. Because I'm just telling you, no doctor's going to risk his medical license to perform an abortion procedure. It's it's just too costly. And so it will close every abortion clinic in this state. And and every uh everybody that's out there crying and weeping about women going to prison is is foolishness. No woman's gonna go to prison. And no doctor's gonna go to prison because this legislation is gonna close the abortion clinic. And there's language in there that also eliminates medical abortions, taking these medications that the doctors are prescribing that cause medical abortions, and it's gonna put an end to that as well. And so I I just want people to hear me say that. I want them to understand the implications of the law.
Speaker 3:Now that's a very good point. Very good point.
Speaker:Now you there's been all kind of kickback from pro-life organizations, not just from uh the folks who are promoting the bill, and what is that all about? Can you explain that to me?
Speaker 3:Well, when I walked in that day to to testify, and um I think there were seven of us there, and uh we were told that you know earlier that morning that obviously the um the pro-life organizations and and pregnancy centers were opposing the bill, and um some of the reasons why they they shared obviously was uh women being criminalized or um being victims, and and uh and I thought, oh my goodness, here I am. I'm you know executive director, founder, and president of my own center, and I I'm I'm standing firm with the bill. And uh the reasons, really the reasons it is kind of is it's a common sense thing because to speak about women being victimized or women being criminalized, and and you just said it, Dr. Jackson, it if this is in if this law is in place, they are not going to go do something that's gonna put them behind bars. I mean, that would be very rare because now they have an understanding there's a bill here, there's a law here that you know we can't do these things. Uh so that so they're speaking from the perspective of it not being in law. The reasons of we can't turn a woman in, what if a woman comes in and she tells us that she's had an abortion, then we would have to report her, we'd have to return her. Well, she's not gonna come into our facilities and tell us that she's had an abortion if she's had an abortion, if it's law. I just don't think any woman is gonna do that. First of all, and second of all, I just don't think she's gonna have the abortion in in general. So uh not gonna happen. So there's you know, it puts a pause in her, which is what we need it to do, to to stop and think there's a serious, you know, implication here, there are a serious consequence here if I make this decision, and it should pause her enough to go, if this is something that's so serious in law to put you know, to to bring any kind of charges against me, then man, I I need to think about this. This must not be good for me. So these reasons that they give, they're they're not realistic because we can't speak from it in perspective of it not being in law. We are speaking to it as if it's in law. We're not speaking about the past here. I mean, and and I've been asked, you're a post-abortive woman, and you would go and testify? Yes, and here's the reason why. If this had been in law when I was faced with making an abortion decision, back in 1992, I didn't even know what abortion was. I truly didn't. They know what it is today. And if I had been faced with that decision and I knew that it was law, it was illegal, I could face charges, I would have never made that choice. I would have never made that choice. And so, but but that wasn't an option for me then. So today, I believe when faced with that same decision, they would stop and think about what they are doing and and not make that choice. And overall, it would it would save lives. You know, we wouldn't see so many babies killed, we we wouldn't see so many women walk through the trauma of abortion, which is a whole nother topic I I could go into. But but here's the truth, Dr. Jackson. I'll end my response to you in this way. If and I was prepared for questions that would have came my way that day when I testified, and I knew the Lord would help me get through it because it was very difficult. But I knew that I was doing the right thing, and I have to walk in my conviction, and that's exactly what I did because I'm not held accountable to anybody but God, and I knew this was what the Lord wanted, and so if I was to be asked, even, well, do you deserve to go to prison for what you did? And I would say to you and them and anybody else that would ask, Yes, I do. And spiritually speaking, I was in handcuffs for 17 years because of what I had done. And that taking the life of someone innocent, an unborn innocent child, no matter what the circumstances are, there absolutely should be a consequence for that.
Speaker:Yeah, you're right, you're right. And there are consequences, there are a lot of emotional and psychiatric consequences that women experience. And I have I've got plenty of patients. Uh I'll just tell you a story. I had a woman come to see me in my office who had an abortion. Uh, I think it was 30 years before she came to see me, and nobody knew it, not even the man that she eventually married. And uh she told me that the folks at her church came to her every year and asked her to teach Sunday school. And she turned them down and they never could understand. They were perplexed. And she looked at me and she said, Dr. Jackson, I can never accept that invitation to teach Sunday school, because she said, Dr. Jackson, I know in my heart that I'm a murderer. She said, I killed my unborn child many years ago, and she said, I have blood on my hands and my conscience is corrupted. And she said, I I just simply cannot be a Sunday school teacher. And she said, Until today, I've never told a soul until I'm telling you right now. And you know, it was only after I was able to encourage her to go to the local crisis pregnancy center where she attended a post-abortion uh counseling class that she was set free from all of that. Thirty years, Jeannie, thirty years she lived with that um knowledge that she had killed her unborn child and that she had a uh a violated conscience. And and I was uh I I was glad that I was help her help able to help her, but I was sad that she'd carried that burden alone for thirty years. And you know, there's lots of women out there that are just like her that desperately need someone to speak to her and let her know that abortion is not the unforgivable sin and that the blood of Jesus can make the foulest clean.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker:You know? All right, but let me switch gears and ask you another question then. You know, I I've heard many say that women who have been to an abortion clinic are the victims, and that they they should not be held criminally liable. Now, do you agree with that?
Speaker 3:I do not think they're victims when they go to the abortion clinic. I I think there is a lot of education out there today, and I know uh I believe they know what they're doing. Uh many of them that walk into our facility every day, uh, they know what they're doing. Um they're they're making that choice. I and but today facing, you know, this huge crisis with the abortion pill, if we are going online, if a woman is going online and she's ordered and researched and purchased this pill that's coming to her home and she's putting it in her mouth, she's putting it in her mouth for a reason. And I and I think that, you know, if if anything, they're a victim to their own decision making because the trauma on the other side of it, which you just you know brought up, is uh is is is is it's detrimental. I mean it's it's just just for example, yesterday I was in healing classes all day long with women all day long, morning classes, middle, you know, midday and evening classes, women that have gone through abortion and they're needing to heal. And and that's where my passion becomes uh very you know um outspoken as well, because I I I I have such a passion to see women heal because I understand that and I want them to understand and know and receive the forgiveness of the Lord. And and they can and they can be healed and set free. And but the trauma is is um and today it's even more escalated because of the abortion pill. But what they walk through on the other side, the emotional, physical, spiritual, I mean, this is such a spiritual battle, as much as people want to make it political, it's not. And their lives are being destroyed. I mean, they align when a woman chooses abortion, she aligns with a spirit of death. And this is why there's so much destruction in her life, trauma in her life, brokenness in her life, it you know, it leads to suicidal thoughts because it's a spirit of death that's attaching itself to her, it leads to drug abuse, uh, sexual trauma. We could go on and on. And and this is all because of that choice. And so, as many you know, may want to think someone standing up to support a bill like this is coming against women, it's actually the opposite. I I think it's an act of love to say, you know, we don't want you to s have to ever walk through this. And so this not only protects the child, but in in my perspective perceptive, it it it protects the mother as well.
Speaker:That's right. You're exactly right. You're so right, Miss Jeannie. And you've been there, you've seen it, and you know from personal experience that abortion is destructive, not just to the life of the child, but to the ongoing life of the mother. Now we're talking about Senate Bill 323, proposed by Richard Cash, Senator Richard Cash, and our suggestion together is that you need to call and speak to your senator, and it the bill will be heard one more time in in the medical affairs subcommittee, but then it'll be uh passed out of that committee to uh the floor of the Senate. And when it comes there, you need to call your senator and tell them to support that bill without amendments. And and that's gonna happen very soon. Uh I think it's gonna have one more hearing in November, and then after that it'll go to the full floor of the Senate. So we're encouraging our listeners in South Carolina to call your senator. Tell them to support Senate Bill 323, the personhood bill, and to do so without uh any amendments. Now, would you have any other thing that you'd like to add to all of that, Miss Jeannie?
Speaker 3:Uh no, I I you did a great job. I I I think that um the the the church in general has just really gotten, you know, um far away from where we need to be in in this topic. And uh many have, you know, um and it's just so clear, it's just to me, it's just such a common sense thing that you know we this is we're talking about the battle of right, good and evil, darkness and light, and um life and death. And it's just been so complicated. You know, everything, you know, the world and and even the body of Christ, I think is really complicated things. And w this is just something that we have to, I I just pray that we can wake up to the truth and stop complicating things and just see it really for what it is, and uh be able to make a choice that would honor God uh and please the Father and begin to, you know, uh save the lives of people, save the life of the unborn and and the mother as well.
Speaker:I hear you. Now, um if you want more information about the bill, you can go to personhood.sc and you can find information about the bill, personhood.sc and you can find information about the bill. And then uh again I encourage you to call your senators and let them know how you feel about it, and encourage them to support the bill without any diluting amendments. All right, now Miss Jeannie, this is Jeannie Smith, and what's the name of your uh Crisis Pregnancy Center down in the beach?
Speaker 3:Um it's Coastline Women's Center.
Speaker:Coastline Women's Center. All right. Well, if you folks down at the beach have young women who need uh ministering to pre-abortion, post abortion, uh if you want to be involved with counseling or financially supporting, how how would they get in touch with you down there, Miss Jeannie, if they want to be involved?
Speaker 3:Well, they can just go to Coastline Women Center dot org and um there's a get involved tab and they can uh just click there and and uh reach out to us and also to me personally, just Jeannie Scott Smith. Um I have a website as well. If anyone's listening that's in been impacted by abortion and needs healing, I I would love to be able to help you find a resource for that.
Speaker:All right. All right. Thank you, ma'am. You've been so kind to spend your time and and speak to my listening audience, and uh I'm I'm gonna have to have you back again. We need to talk about post-abortion counseling. Can we do that another visit?
Speaker 3:Oh yes, I'd love to I'd love to talk a lot about that.
Speaker:I knew you would. I knew you would. We'll we'll make a plan. As soon as we hang up, we're gonna make a plan for that. How about it?
Speaker 3:Okay, sounds great.
Speaker:All right, you're listening to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Robert Jackson. My guest today is Jeannie Smith with Coastline uh say it again, Coastline what?
Speaker 3:Coastline Women's Center.
Speaker:Coastline Women's Center. And we'll be back again next week. Until then, remember your doctor loves you, and may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to this edition of Northern Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Medicine or to schedule a speaker, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at Jackson Family Medicine dot com.
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