In South Carolina, Republican lawmakers are contemplating making a change to the state’s criminal code that would punish a person who gets an abortion with the death penalty

The bill, called the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023, would amend the state’s code of laws, redefining “person” to include a fertilised egg at the point of conception, affording that zygote “equal protection under the homicide laws of the state” – up to and including the death penalty

Representative Rob Harris wrote the bill and so far it has attracted 21 co-sponsors to date

The bill, however, provides an exception for pregnant women who underwent abortion “because she was compelled to do so by the threat of imminent death or great bodily injury”

It also provides an exception if the procedure is needed to avert the death of a mother “when all reasonable alternatives to save the life of the unborn child were attempted or none were available”[…]
In addition, the proposed bill does not provide an exception for rape or incest. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina said on the House floor last week that “to see this debate go to the dark places, the dark edges, where it has gone on both sides of the aisle, has been deeply disturbing to me as a woman, as a female legislator, as a mom, and as a victim of rape”