That Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady

South Carolina considers death penalty for women who have abortions.

Photo by Isabela Martins on Unsplash

Some Republican politicians in South Carolina are looking into the most extreme punishment for abortion: the death penalty.

The South Carolina Prenatal Protection Act, which currently sits with the state’s General Assembly, centers around four key points:

   (1) to afford equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization;

   (2) to comply with the Constitution of the United States, which requires that "no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," by repealing exceptions that permit willful prenatal homicide;

   (3) to ensure that all persons potentially subject to such laws are entitled to due process protections; and, therefore,

   (4) to abolish abortion in this State as a legal act or as a crime separate and distinct from equivalent acts committed against a person who has been born.

The act goes on to discuss prosecution “where the victim is an unborn child, unless specifically provided otherwise”:

   (1) enforcement is subject to the same presumptions, defenses, justifications, laws of parties, immunities, and clemencies as would apply to the assault of a person who had been born alive;

   (2) solicitors and the Attorney General shall have concurrent authority to prosecute criminal cases and to perform any duty that necessarily relates to such prosecution.

In other words, abortion could be considered homicide under South Carolina law. In that state, homicide can be punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.

The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act broadens the definition of personhood to include a fertilized egg. The only exceptions in which abortion from the moment of fertilization through the time of birth would not be considered homicide, according to the act, would be “when all reasonable alternatives to save the life of the unborn child were attempted or none were available” or if a woman “was compelled to do so by the threat of imminent death or great bodily injury.” There does not appear to be language within the act that offers exceptions for rape or incest.

The Republican-sponsored bill does not have the support of all South Carolina Republicans. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told her fellow House members that there needs to be “a bipartisan debate where we balance the rights of women and we balance the right to life.” Mace, a rape survivor, said that the abortion debate has gone “to the dark places, the dark edges” and that she found it disturbing “as a woman, as a female legislator, as a mom…” According to USA Today, some Republicans who initially latched onto the bill have since asked to have their names removed.

Currently, abortion is legal in South Carolina up to about 21 weeks. In January, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, also known as the Fetal Heartbeat Bill.