The state legislature of South Carolina has taken one step closer to making an unborn fetus declared a human at conception thus making abortion illegal in that state in the future.
In a vote by the state legislature’s Senate Judiciary Committee, a measure was approved that will give unborn children legal status at conception. The vote was 11-5 and the bill will make its way to the full state Senate soon. The measure has been called the “personhood” bill and, if ratified and signed by the governor, could become the law in South Carolina. If this were to happen, it would make abortion illegal in the state.
South Carolina Senator Lee Bright commented that, “When you get around the edges, there may be some questions we don’t have all the answers to but allowing all these children to lose their lives is, to me, unacceptable.”
Even though the bill has come out of committee, most legislature watchers believe it will still be a long and hard road to get such a measure approved and signed into law. The five senators in the minority of the voting included their own report to the state Senate. It will take a two thirds vote on the Senate floor for the chamber to even bring the motion up for consideration.
The measure must make it through both chambers of the South Carolina legislature and still make it to the governor’s desk by the end of June prior to summer vacation. Even if it was passed and signed by the governor, it would still have to be approved of in a statewide general election come this November.
“What we are trying to do,” said Senator Bright, ” is to give a constitutional right to due process to that unborn child. Regardless of the situation, does that child deserve due process? Does that child have a right to live? That’s the matter before us…”
Senator Bright, and many others, believe that if this measure becomes law, it will override the United States Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs. Wade.