April 24, 2025
Leading Pro-Life Voices Call for South Carolina State Lawmakers to Protect Life at Conception
Pro-Life Heavy-Hitters Kristan Hawkins and Abby Johnson Send Letter to South Carolina Lawmakers Urging Them to Vote on Critical Human Life Protection Act
From the Letter: “With great optimism, SFLAction now calls on Members in the House to live up to their pro-life promises, made on the campaign trail. We ask you to lead on LIFE and to call for a straight up-or-down vote on the measure, the best recourse for ending the charged political environment developing as pro-life voters gather, calling on their elected leaders to protect preborn babies.”
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COLUMBIA, SC (04-24-2025) – As part of Students for Life Action’s (SFLAction) ongoing efforts to pass life-saving legislation in South Carolina, pro-life champions Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life Action (SFLAction), and Abby Johnson, head of And Then There Were None (ATTWN), sent a powerful letter to the leadership of the South Carolina House of Representatives on Wednesday. They’re urging the Speaker of the House, G. Murrell Smith Jr., to hold a straight up-or-down vote on H 3457, the Human Life Protection Act, which, if enacted, would save the lives of thousands of preborn babies every year in South Carolina.
Below is the full text of the letter sent by Hawkins and Johnson to Rep. Smith. For more information on the bill, the events taking place in South Carolina this month, and SFLAction’s role therein, read the press release here. Read the letter to the Speaker of the House in full below:
Dear Speaker Smith,
As you know, H. 3457, the Human Life Protection Act, was introduced again this session by Representative John McCravy. This legislation, if enacted, would save the lives of more than 3,000 preborn babies every year in South Carolina. To stop the ongoing human rights tragedy, similar legislation has been passed in the South Carolina State House by wide margins in the previous two legislative sessions. The responsibility to compassionately confront this loss of life in the South Carolina now falls to you.
In the last two sessions, the bill was blocked in the South Carolina Senate and, most famously, with a filibuster led by the national media’s much-ballyhooed “Sister Senators.” The “Sister Senators” refused to even allow the bill to come to a vote, for which they received Students for Life Action’s (SFLAction) whimsical “Get A Spine” Award, noting their failure to fight for the least of these.
That was not the end of our engagement in the Palmetto State. After years of watching pro-life voters being let down by the Republican Majority, SFLAction decided to hold elected officials accountable for their actions in the primaries.
SFLAction actively recruited candidates and deployed staff, students, and resources to the state, resulting in more than 37,000 pieces of mail, nearly 130,000 personal text messages, more than 51,000 phone calls, and thousands of doors knocked in the “Sister Senators” districts.
And just like that, the ranks of the “Sister Senators” were decimated – State Sens. Katrina Shealy, Penry Gustafson, and Sandy Senn were all defeated by SFLAction-supported pro-life candidates.
With great optimism, SFLAction now calls on Members in the House to live up to their pro-life promises, made on the campaign trail.
The Human Life Protection Act is still sitting in the State House Judiciary Committee with no movement towards a vote. The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Weston Newton, even named a Planned Parenthood-endorsed liberal Democratic Party member as a Subcommittee Chair over several proven pro-life Republican members, a troubling event for those looking to you to direct the policy and appointments of your GOP team.
We ask you to lead on LIFE and to call for a straight up-or-down vote on the measure, the best recourse for ending the charged political environment developing as pro-life voters gather, calling on their elected leaders to protect preborn babies. We are also glad to discuss with you, in person or on the phone, the current situation we are facing in South Carolina.
The Republican Party and the Pro-Life Movement have always had a mutually beneficial relationship. It is a relationship that we believe both sides wish to continue, which is why we appeal to you today to end this human rights tragedy. Before the session adjourns on May 8, 2025, please end the Republican-permitted blockade of the Human Life Protection Act and call for a vote.
Sincerely,
Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America & Students for Life Action
Abby Johnson, Founder of And Then There Were None & Pro-Love Ministries
READ: ALERT: THE GOP IN SOUTH CAROLINA MAY BE CAVING TO THE ABORTION LOBBY.
READ: Final Pro-Abortion “Sister Senator” Gets Taken Down in South Carolina Run-Off Victory
READ: Students for Life Action Delivers Moving Boxes to South Carolina Senators Who Betrayed Life
To learn more about SFLAction’s work in South Carolina, click here.
To learn more on the federal slate of South Carolina as reported in SFLAction’s Pro-Life Generation Report Card, click here.
For interviews, contact [email protected].
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The Pro-Life Generation (PLG) is an umbrella organization encompassing the most-cutting edge engagement opportunities for a Vote Pro-Life First Community. PLG includes Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), that together make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a grassroots political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, PLG/SFLA/SFLAction serves more than 1,500 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. Our team has more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. In addition to SFLA/SFLAction, PLG leads multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement. Over more than 17 years, PLG CEO Kristan Hawkins has grown the operation into a nearly $20M organization, now preparing for an abortion-free America.