Staff reports | A bipartisan group of state legislators in South Carolina is advocating for bills that would enshrine protections for in vitro fertilization in state law after a ruling in Alabama determined frozen embryos have the same legal rights as children.
“What played out in Alabama can’t play out in South Carolina,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, told reporters Wednesday.
Bills were filed in the state House and Senate this week, with predominantly Democratic sponsors and some Republican support.
The House version of the bill would mandate that any fertilized human egg or human embryo outside the uterus could not be legally considered a child, while the Senate version takes a broader approach, preventing “undue burden” placed on access to reproductive technologies and stipulating that fertility clinics are not required to preserve sperm, eggs or embryos outside the human body.
In other recent headlines involving the legislature:
Workers ready at Leatherman Terminal, ILA says. Area union dockworkers who are members of the International Longshoremen’s Association 1422 are prepared to operate the cranes at the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal to reopen the port facility immediately in North Charleston, the president of the local union said.
S.C.’s push to pass hate crimes law stalls again. The hate crimes bill that passed the House 84-31 in March of last year has sat on the Senate’s calendar for nearly a year. If it isn’t approved by early May, it will die — just like a similar bill that made it that far in 2021 before the Senate did nothing with it. South Carolina is one of two states that don’t have a hate crimes law.
S.C. House working to soften liquor insurance spike. The S.C. House of Representatives will take up legislation to create incentives to bring insurers back into the state’s dramatically declining liquor liability insurance market.
S.C. lawmakers debate electing judges. After months of talking among themselves, S.C. lawmakers are officially debating making changes in how the General Assembly chooses judges.
Also in the news:
- S.C. Senate advances legislation targeting predatory real estate practices.
- Grooms wants misplaced money kept in ‘lockbox’ until the mystery solved.
- House OKs bill to merge several state agencies into one.
- S.C. regulators pull back on strict stance against THC seltzers.
- S.C. lawmakers say some students need more cursive, recess
- Short-term rental bill a ‘dangerous game to play,’ some say
- Panel open to changing name for S.C. Confederate Relic Room
DHEC takes IOP seawall to court. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has filed a lawsuit against an Isle of Palms resident over a homemade seawall built to protect his property.
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