Can you legally marry your cousin in South Carolina?

On April 26th The State, a daily newspaper in Columbia, had an article about cousin marriage:

The Bible’s Old Testament talks about cousin marriage. In one passage God instructs cousins to marry (Numbers 36:1-11).

There are so many examples of historic figures marrying a cousin, it begs the question: Is it even legal?

Yes if you live in South Carolina and these other states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. The South Carolina Code of Laws Section 20-1-10 specifically prohibits many types of family members from marrying, but not cousins.

You can marry your second cousin, however, in all states in the nation.

The practice is allowed and even encouraged in countries around the world.

Until the mid-1800s cousin marriage in the U.S. was favored by the upper class as a way to hold onto wealth. The rise in the ease of travel, though, opened the world and more suitors.

Cross-cousin marriage

Britannica has an article on the term cross-cousin which means "the children of a father’s sister or of a mother’s brother":

Some societies consider first-cousin marriages to be ideal. In those that differentiate between cross-cousins and parallel cousins, cross-cousin marriage is usually preferred or sometimes even obligatory, while marriage between parallel cousins often falls under incest taboos. In exceptional cases, however, the opposite is true. Even when a cross-cousin is the preferential mate, actual instances of such marriages in a given society may be small, for such decisions are also influenced by local customs governing succession, inheritance, and residence. Cross-cousin marriage often acts as a device to strengthen alliances between clans.

Map Shows States Where You Can Marry Your Cousin

On April 12th, Newsweek had an article about cousin marriage:

First-cousin marriage remains completely legal in these 17 states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

Other states allow first cousins to get married in some specific circumstances. Maine, for instance, allows cousins to wed after they undergo genetic counseling. Other states, such as Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Utah and Wisconsin, allow it when both individuals seeking to get married reach a certain age, typically at which they would be unlikely to have children.

The exact number of Americans who are married to their first cousins is not clear. A 2015 column from FiveThirtyEight examined the issue and found that statistics show that 0.2 percent of Americans are married to their first cousins. The website said, however, that number also includes the number of Americans married to their second cousins, and that number is based on studies from 1941 to 1981, with more-recent data not being available.