South Carolina GOP lawmakers are once again attempting to classify abortion as homicide in the state, opening up abortion recipients to the death penalty.
The state already boasts one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, barring the procedure after six weeks with very few exceptions. The new bill would redefine personhood in state law to include an “unborn child at every stage of development from fertilization until birth.” As such, any abortion carried out in the state would be homicide.
The controversial bill was first introduced in January 2023. It garnered nationwide attention and backlash over the possibility of draconian punishments for abortion recipients and quickly lost about a third of its cosponsors. State Rep. Rob Harris reintroduced the proposal earlier this month, pre-filing it ahead of the state assembly reconvening in January. The new bill boasts six sponsors already.
Critics of the initial bill, which is nearly identical to Harris’s reintroduced text, argued that it would callously and excessively punish women for pregnancy terminations, even medically necessary ones.
“Not content with banning abortion, the sponsors of [the bill] want to charge women with murder and sentence them to the death penalty,” Vicki Ringer, Director of Public Affairs at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in early 2023 on social media. “The end of the pregnancy establishes a crime. You have to prove innocence.”
The new bill does have one key change that carves out an exception for miscarriages. Still, the bill specifies that a patient who experiences a miscarriage may be required to prove to prosecutors that the loss of pregnancy was natural and not induced.
Texas Republicans championed a party platform earlier this year that included defining abortion as a homicide, per the Guardian. With very few exceptions, abortion is effectively illegal in the state, and abortion providers can face up to life in prison for flouting the ban.
