May 23, 2025
South Carolina voters are demanding action, and lawmakers have no excuse—it’s time to pass the Human Life Protection Act, which will protect Life from the moment of Conception.
Students for Life Action (SFLAction) attended the South Carolina Republican Convention Saturday, May 3rd—just 5 days before the end of the legislative session—where we talked to delegates and voters about their thoughts on protecting Life at Conception and urging Speaker Murrell Smith Jr. and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Weston Newton to get the bill across the finish line.
Delegates are voters who are members of the Republican Party selected to represent their local party organizations at Republican State Conventions to vote on party leadership and rules for the party. Not all voters become delegates.
Here’s what some of them said:
“I’m actually shocked that South Carolina, us being here in the Bible Belt, that we are still having this fight,” one of the delegates, Kizzie Smalls, said. “I believe that now is time for us to make sure that all lives matter.”
Smalls said that our “babies don’t have a voice” and that “we should be protecting them.”
“I don’t believe that at eight or ten days, or 21 days, or however many weeks that it’s a mass of cells,” Jackie Bruce said. “It doesn’t suddenly become a human once it exits the birth canal. It’s a baby.”
Edan Shirley, a 20-year-old and one of the youngest delegates, shared that his 2-year-old brother “cannot communicate as well as I can,” but that his age doesn’t make him any less of a person.
“All life is sacred, and just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there and because it can’t express itself doesn’t mean that you should take it away,” Shirley said.
These delegates have made themselves clear, and the pressure is mounting on Speaker Smith Jr. and Rep. Weston Newton, especially after the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act on Wednesday, May 14th.
The legislature failed to bring the bill to a vote before the end of session on Thursday, May 8th, and lawmakers are now urging fellow Republicans in the legislature to vote for this crucial measure to protect Life at Conception when they return to the State House on Wednesday, May 28th.
