Denver Newsroom, Jan 29, 2021 / 00:54 am
A proposed South Carolina ban on abortion after an unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected has won approval from the state senate for the first time, drawing praise from the Catholic Diocese of Charleston.
“The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston fully supports legal protection for unborn children, so we are extremely pleased that the South Carolina Senate, in a bipartisan effort, passed the third reading of the South Carolina Heartbeat Bill,” Maria Aselage, media relations director for the Diocese of Charleston, said in a Jan. 28 statement.
Aselage, whose diocese covers the entire state of South Carolina, said the bill has two main goals.
“First, it provides a pre-born child protection from an abortion once a heartbeat is detected. This would prevent nearly all abortions in the Palmetto State since the heartbeat can be detected around the sixth week of pregnancy,” she said. “The second goal of the bill is to require that doctors check for the heartbeat of the child so that when a heartbeat is detected, the child immediately receives full protection under the law.”