May 6, 2025
In a recent Townhall op-ed, Students for Life Action (SFLAction) President Kristan Hawkins and Jason Rapert, the founder and president of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) expressed their frustration over the South Carolina House’s inaction on H. 3457, the Human Life Protection Act, particularly the stalling tactics of Speaker of the House Murrell Smith Jr. and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Weston Newton. The bill being held up by Speaker Smith and Rep. Newton aims to prohibit all abortions except in cases of medical necessity.
Hawkins and Rapert criticized this delay, pointing out that “Rep. Newton has twice passed this bill out of Committee in prior sessions” and “any new objections are manufactured.”
They also noted that the legislative session ends Thursday, May 8th, emphasizing the urgent need to act to save more than 3,700 preborn children annually in South Carolina.
This kind of stalling isn’t likely to sit well with pro-life voters in South Carolina, who elected a pro-life majority to take bold action, not make excuses.
And yet, instead of rallying behind leaders like Rep. John McCravy—who has consistently championed the bill and the humanity of the preborn—Speaker Smith has attacked him.
As Hawkins and Rapert revealed, “Speaker Smith has turned his ire on the genuine, 100% pro-life Rep. McCravy, threatening him with removal from the GOP Caucus, running attack ads in his district, and threatening other Family Caucus Members with the same treatment if they don’t resign from the Family Caucus and speak out against pro-life students.”
During a recent appearance on Wake Up Carolina, Hawkins noted what happened in the previous session as a warning to current lawmakers.
“This bill passed your House in 2023, went to the Senate, [and] three Republican senators—the ‘Sister Senators’—killed that bill,” she said. “After, we got to work and educated voters this [last] summer, all three of those senators lost their primaries and [were] replaced by 100% champions.”
The message is clear—South Carolina voters are watching, and they expect action, not excuses.