Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have proposed a bill that seeks to redefine the term “person” to include the unborn. The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023 would consider an “unborn child” which is aborted at any stage of development the victim of homicide, with protections afforded under the state’s assault laws.
The change to the state’s criminal code would effectively make a person who gets an abortion eligible for the death penalty, as reported by The Hill. The bill provides exceptions for abortion if a woman is under the imminent threat of death or great bodily injury but does not include exceptions for rape or incest.
Currently, South Carolina allows abortions up to 22 weeks. Murder is a crime punishable by death or a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for thirty years to life, according to South Carolina’s current criminal code.
Other states, including Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, have recently introduced similar bills linking abortion with homicide, while Louisiana attempted to pass such a law last year but failed. However, Louisiana does have existing laws that make performing or inducing an abortion punishable by imprisonment with hard labor for up to five years.
This trend of restricting access to and punishing abortion follows the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision last year that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Currently, 18 states have imposed near or total abortion bans, with varying penalties for breaking the law in each of those states. Eight states have had their bans blocked, while 26 states have varying degrees of legalized abortion.