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Senator Cash introduces bill to revise abortion-related definitions, cites prior ‘heartbeat’ law
Summary
Senator Cash introduced a bill to revise abortion-related statutory definitions, including adding definitions for “abortifacient” and “contraception” and deleting definitions for “fetal fatal anomaly” and “fetal heartbeat.”
Senator Cash introduced legislation to amend definitions in the South Carolina Code of Laws related to abortion, proposing new statutory definitions for “abortifacient” and “contraception,” changes to the definition of “contraceptive,” and deletion of the definitions of “fetal fatal anomaly” and “fetal heartbeat.”
In floor remarks, Senator Cash tied the proposal to the chamber’s earlier “heartbeat” legislation and to the shift in abortion law authority after Roe v. Wade. “In 02/2023, we passed the heartbeat bill in this chamber,” he said, and described a decline in the recorded number of abortions in the final months of 2023 compared with earlier numbers. He framed the new measure as an effort to ensure state law reflects the belief that legal protection should begin at fertilization: “For those of you who believe that a human life begins at conception, it deserves legal protection because the right to life is the foremost of unalienable rights.”
Senator Cash said he had expected other lawmakers to reintroduce the Human Life Protection Act but that he prepared his own bill—which he described as the “onboard child protection act”—and urged the body and lawmakers across the hall to give the matter “serious and due consideration.”
The reading clerk announced the bill was referred to the Medical Affairs Committee. Senator Cash’s remarks were introductory; no committee action or floor votes were recorded on the bill during this session.
