TWENTY OR MORE WEEKS, TO PROVIDE FOR EXCEPTIONS, AND TO PROVIDE THE ACT DOES NOT IMPLICITLY OR OTHERWISE REPEAL ANOTHER PROVISION OF LAW. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina: SECTION 1. Chapter 41, Title 44 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding: “Article 5 South Carolina PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act Section 4441410. This article may be cited as the ‘South Carolina PainCapable Unborn Child Protection Act’. Section 4441420. The General Assembly makes the following findings: (1) Pain receptors (nociceptors) are present throughout the unborn child’s entire body and nerves link these receptors to the brain’s thalamus and subcortical plate by no later than twenty weeks. (2) By eight weeks after fertilization, the unborn child reacts to touch. After twenty weeks, the unborn child reacts to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling. (3) In the unborn child, application of such painful stimuli is associated with significant increases in stress hormones known as the stress response. (4) Subjection to such painful stimuli is associated with longterm harmful neurodevelopmental effects, such as altered pain sensitivity and, possibly, emotional, behavioral, and learning disabilities later in life. (5) For the purposes of surgery on unborn children, fetal anesthesia is routinely administered and is associated with a decrease in stress hormones compared to their levels when painful stimuli are applied without such anesthesia. (6) The position, asserted by some medical experts, that the unborn child is incapable of experiencing pain until a point later in pregnancy than twenty weeks after fertilization predominately rests on the assumption that the ability to experience pain depends on the cerebral cortex and requires nerve connections between the thalamus and the cortex. However, recent medical research and analysis, especially since 2007, provides strong evidence for the conclusion that a functioning cortex is not necessary to experience pain.
reasonably lead to the identification of any pregnant woman upon whom an abortion was performed, induced, or attempted. (D) Any physician who fails to submit a report by the end of thirty days following the due date must be subject to a late fee of one thousand dollars for each additional thirtyday period or portion of a thirtyday period the report is overdue. Any physician required to report in accordance with this article who has not submitted a report, or has submitted only an incomplete report, more than six months following the due date, may, in an action brought by the department, be directed by a court of competent jurisdiction to submit a complete report within a period stated by court order or be subject to civil contempt. Intentional or reckless failure by any physician to conform to any requirement of this section, other than late filing of a report, constitutes ‘unprofessional conduct’ pursuant to Section 404720(53). Intentional or reckless failure by any physician to submit a complete report in accordance with a court order constitutes ‘unprofessional conduct’ pursuant to Section 404720(53). Intentional or reckless falsification of any report required under this section is a misdemeanor punishable by not more than one year in prison. (E) Within ninety days of the effective date of this article, the Department of Health and Human Services shall adopt and promulgate forms and regulations to assist in compliance with this section. Subsection (A) shall take effect so as to require reports regarding all abortions performed or induced on and after the first day of the first calendar month following the effective date of such rules. Section 4441470. Any person who intentionally or knowingly fails to conform to any requirement in Section 4441440 is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than two thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars or imprisoned for not more than three years, or both. No part of the minimum fine may be suspended. For conviction of a third or subsequent offense, the sentence must be imprisonment for not less than sixty days nor more than three years, no part of which may be suspended. Section 4441480. (A) Any woman upon whom an abortion has been performed or induced in violation of this article, or the father of the unborn child who was the subject of such an abortion, may maintain an action against the person who performed or induced the abortion in intentional or reckless violation of this