If a proposal at the State House is passed into law, women who undergo abortions in South Carolina could be subjected to the death penalty, Yahoo News reported.

The South Carolina Pre-Natal Equal Protection Act, a bill in the S.C. House, aims to grant “equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization” and redefine any action resulting in the termination of a pregnancy as “wilful prenatal homicide.”

As per the bill, an abortion could be penalized like any other murder, resulting in prison sentences ranging from 30 years to the death penalty, as reported by Yahoo News.

The bill explicitly provides an exception for a woman who undergoes an abortion if “she was compelled to do so by the threat of imminent death or great bodily injury.”

Amid GOP-led states debating the extent to which they should regulate or ban abortions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year that the procedure is no longer subject to federal legal protections, the proposal has garnered significant attention.

Written by staff