A new bill in South Carolina is seeking to extend life insurance coverage to embryos.
House bill 5725 was introduced in the state's House of Representatives on March 19. The bill text stipulates that any insurer that offers individual or group life insurance policies to extend the policy to unborn embryos. While still in the legislative process, if enacted the bill would give unborn embryos the same individual rights as born children who are no longer in the womb or other state prior to birth.
"Over the years with our own abortion debates here in South Carolina, because in South Carolina, we want to say that life begins at conception, and we've been banning abortions. But when I say that life begins at conception, well, that means that when life begins, that these unborn children should be afforded every single right that you and I have," Democratic Representative Jermaine Johnson said, according to a report by ABC4 News.
Johnson is the primary sponsor of the bill. Newsweek has contacted his office for comment via a contact form on the South Carolina state house website outside of normal working hours.
Johnson also said that embryos should be given a Social Security number as well as being capable of acquiring life insurance, allowing them "to have these different types of rights that you and I have."
Giving his reasoning for the bill, Johnson said it was directly inspired by the February 6 Supreme Court ruling in Alabama that declared frozen embryos created via in vitro fertilization (IVF) are considered children under state law. As a result, IVF clinics across the state paused treatments over fears they could be prosecuted.
"We saw in Alabama where they ruled that frozen embryos could be considered people, and this is one of the things that we need to make sure that we're protecting individuals here in South Carolina," Johnson said. "Because we know we kind of follow suit in these, in these states with introducing legislation.
"And we want to make sure that people are protected, that they have the right to IVF, that we want to protect families however they want to bring forth children and bring forth life. Because life is beautiful and you we just want to make sure we protect these individuals."
The introduction of the bill follows other post Roe v. Wade legislation brought forward across the country since the landmark reproductive rights case was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022. Enacted in 1973, Roe v. Wade gave women the constitutional right to abortion.
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