South Carolina currently has a heartbeat law, which makes abortion illegal if a heartbeat can be detected 6-8 weeks into the pregnancy, but some lawmakers wanted to go further. The legislature is currently in special session, allowing those lawmakers to draft a stronger state law.
Holly Gatling of South Carolina Citizens for Life tells AFN lawmakers in the House are proposing legislation that “protects the right to life of the unborn members of our human family.”
Gatling says there is an exception for rape in the legislation, with a requirement to report it to law enforcement authorities, and the proposal is carefully written to protect the life of the pregnant woman, too.
She says the South Carolina Senate is currently in special session, too, so the bill will be debated there.
“And so if it passes the Senate,” she says, “then we hope it will be signed very quickly into law by our pro-life governor, Henry McMaster.”
