COLUMBIA, South Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — A lawmaker in South Carolina has filed legislation that would ban abortion from conception except in the case of a “medical emergency” to prevent the death of the mother or her serious and irreversible bodily impairment.
H 3457, known as the Human Life Protection Act, would tighten the state’s abortion restrictions from a six-week prohibition with exceptions for fetal anomalies and a 12-week ban for cases of rape and incest to a near-total ban.
The bill, if passed, would prohibit abortion unless performed “due to a medical emergency,” to “prevent the death of the pregnant woman” or her “serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, not including psychological or emotional conditions (emphasis added).”
No exceptions for rape or incest are included in the legislation.
“As a society, we’ve done a terrible job recognizing the fact that babies in the womb deserve the same protection and the same chance at life,” remarked the bill’s author, state Rep. John McCravy.
He emphasized that the bill “is not a total ban” because it contains “numerous exceptions for life or serious health of the mother.”
The public came out both in support of and against the legislation before a subcommittee on Tuesday. One opponent of the legislation protested that the South Carolina government would not financially provide for the children she claimed the state was “forcing” women to give birth to.
One of the bill’s supporters argued that abortion not only does violence to the life of unborn children but “violates the integrity” of the parents.
“Science, medicine, natural law and moral law all disaffirm the necessity and rightness of abortion because it violates the integrity of the mothers, fathers, and child’s body and soul,” a supporter said.
The bill needs votes in subcommittee as well as the floors of the GOP-dominated state House and Senate before it has a chance of being signed by South Carolina Republican Gov. Henry McMaster.
