COLUMBIA, S.C. (Tuesday, March 25, 2025) – The State Senate Finance Committee unanimously advanced a strong, principled pro-life bill Tuesday that would give tax credits to individuals and businesses that support pregnancy care centers, adoption agencies, and foster care
organizations, among other non-profit pro-life and pro-family establishments in South Carolina.
South Carolina Citizens for Life supports the legislation as part of its Visioning A Way Forward from Dobbs to a Culture of Life which includes supporting policies that provide resource care for the unborn members of our human family and their mothers.
Senator Ross Turner, R-Greenville, moved to give S 32, known as the Pregnancy Resource Tax Credit Bill, a favorable report that would move the legislation to the full Senate. On March 11, 2025 the legislation received unanimous approval by members of the Sales & Income Tax Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee including Chairman Turner, and Senators Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, and Tom Corbin, R-Greenville.
Eligible charitable organizations include
those that provide adoption services, prevent abuse, neglect, abandonment, exploitation or trafficking of children, and provide assistance related to carrying a pregnancy to term, preventing abortion, and promoting healthy childbirth.
The law requires eligible organizations to state in writing to the S.C.
Department of Revenue that the organization “does not provide, pay for, or provide coverage of abortion and does not financially support any other entity that provides, pays for or provides coverage for abortion.”
South Carolina Citizens for Life strongly supports the legislation S 32 sponsored by Senators Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley/Charleston; Matt Leber, R-Charleston,/Colleton/ Dorchester; Rex Rice, R-Greenville/Pickens; and Mike Reichenbach, R-Florence.
In a
letter to all the members of the Senate Finance Committee, SCCL President Lisa Van Riper wrote, “Science leaves no doubt that life in the womb is alive and of the human species. This fact is acknowledged in the South Carolina Code of Law
44-41-610 (14) that states ‘Unborn child means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from conception until live birth.’ The South Carolina General Assembly has the opportunity now to continue to build the culture of life by enacting pro-life policies such as S 32.” Since 1990, South Carolina lawmakers have enacted 15 laws to protect and care for mothers and their unborn children, most recently the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection Act.
Organizations supporting the Pregnancy Resource Tax Credit Bill include the South Carolina Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, Palmetto Family, Lifeline Children’s Services, A Moment of Hope, and the Catholic Diocese of Charleston among others.
A tax credit reduces the amount of taxes owed dollar-for-dollar. Donors who
support federally recognized charitable organizations are eligible for tax deductions which reduce the amount of taxable income. Tax credits, however, have the potential to bring in larger amounts of money and give taxpayers some say over how their tax dollars are used. For example a taxpayer who owed $1,000 in state income taxes could designate 50 percent of the taxes to a qualified organization that meets the requirements of S 32.
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