Members of the South Carolina House approved a bill Tuesday that protects most preborn children from abortion. House Bill 5399, which passed with a vote of 67-35, does include exceptions allowing abortion in cases of rape and incest up to 12 weeks after conception, with the requirement that the crime must be reported to law enforcement.
As CNN reports, the original text of the bill only included exceptions for the life of the mother or if there is a risk of “the substantial physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” However, after that bill failed to pass as written, the amendments for rape and incest exceptions were added.
Abortion doesn’t heal the trauma of rape, and may serve to inflict another traumatic experience on the woman, whose child is killed. In such a situation, an innocent child is killed for the crimes of his father.
The bill also contains language that would require a preborn child’s father to start child support payments as of the date of the child’s conception. This would include half of the mother’s pregnancy expenses, including half of her insurance premiums. If the father raped the mother, he would also have to pay 100% of her expenses for mental health counseling.
Representative John McCravy, who sponsored the legislation, praised its passage in the House. “This is a tremendous pro-life victory that has the potential to completely eliminate the abortion industry in our state, and stops the practice of using abortion as birth control,” he wrote on social media. “Thanks to all who have been praying for this to happen.”
The bill is now being sent to the Senate, which is expected to convene on September 6 to consider its passage.
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