South Carolina House Judiciary Chairman Greg Delleney
COLUMBIA, S.C.–South Carolina Citizens for Life President Lisa Van Riper praised the strongly bi-partisan vote Tuesday to advance the Unborn Child Protection Against Dismemberment Abortion Act H 3548.
“South Carolina Citizens for Life commends the bi-partisan action of the S.C. House Judiciary Committee to advance the Unborn Child Protection Against Dismemberment Abortion Act,” Mrs. Van Riper said. “The gruesome abortion procedure which dismembers a living child in the womb should have no place in a civilized society.”
By a vote of 18-4 on Tuesday, the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee advanced H3548, to the full S.C. House. The bill prevents abortionists from killing living unborn children by ripping them apart so that they bleed to death.
The bill will appear on the House Calendar on Thursday.
Pro-Life Judiciary Chairman Greg Delleney refuted the specious arguments of principle dismemberment defender, James Smith, who suggested that women who seek late term abortions could be forced to deliver a dead baby in the same part of the hospital where other women are giving birth to wanted children. Chairman Delleney also explained that the language of the dismemberment ban is similar to the ban on partial birth abortion that the S.C. General Assembly passed in 1997 and which was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v Carhart.
The dismemberment ban passed the Constitutional Laws Subcommittee 3-0 on March 8 following strong pro-life testimony. For background see SCCL E-Mail Tree reports here and here.
Joining SCCL and its statewide network of chapters in supporting passage of H3548 include the South Carolina Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, the South Carolina Baptist Convention, the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, and Palmetto Family Council and its affiliate, the Nehemiah Project.