COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – One of the most controversial upcoming bills at the statehouse is the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act, which would define abortion as homicide.
If passed, the bill would allow the death penalty for abortions.
State Representative Josiah Magnuson said this would be the toughest pro-life bill in the country.
The Prenatal Equal Protection Act will amend state laws and broaden the definition of a person, to include an unborn child at any stage of development. The current policy in South Carolina is that women can have an abortion within the first six weeks of pregnancy.
Magnuson said it’s important for the “unborn” to have equal rights.
“Every person has a right to justice, so it treats all murder the same, beginning with the unborn child, all parties to the crime would be punished under this bill,” he said.
Magnuson said many people slam this bill for the wrong reasons.
“Often this bill is criticized that it’s a prosecution of women bill, but what it is is a prosecution of intentional abortion,” Magnuson said. “If a woman commits an abortion or if a man coerces her to commit an abortion or conspires to commit an abortion, all of those parties would be prosecuted, but only for an intentional abortion, where there’s evidence to prove that it happened.”