Category Archives: Personhood

2025 SC Legislature God's Law Personhood

Video and Written Testimony of Christians for Personhood, for SC House Judiciary ConLaws Subcommittee, March 4, 2025

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Revised March 20, 2025

Prepared Written Testimony of Steve Lefemine, Christians for Personhood, for SC House Judiciary ConLaws Subcommittee, March 4, 2025

Prepared Written Testimony of Steve Lefemine
exec. dir., Christians for Personhood
SC House Judiciary Constitutional Laws Subcommittee
House Blatt Building, Room 110, State House Complex
Columbia, South Carolina
March 4, 2025

 

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Substitute strike/insert Personhood language proposed to amend Committee Bill H3457, the inaccurately titled “Human Life Protection Act” (near-total ban of surgical/“abortion” pill “abortions”; does not ban abortifacient hormonal “birth control”, does not ban abortifacient IUD’s; does not ban so-called “emergency contraception” [sic] which also functions abortifaciently; does not ban eugenic and “abortion”-causing practices of the unnatural IVF procedures).
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Video of entire Subcommittee Hearing (Go to: 26:50)
     
House Judiciary Constitutional Laws Subcommittee on H3457
Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 9am – 12 pm
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2025 SC Legislature Personhood

PRESIDENT TRUMP ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT CONFIRMS HUMAN LIFE AND HUMAN PERSONHOOD BEGIN AT CONCEPTION

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PRESIDENT TRUMP ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT CONFIRMS HUMAN LIFE AND HUMAN PERSONHOOD BEGIN AT CONCEPTION
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‘Trump Issues Executive Order That Confirms Human Life Begins at Conception’

LifeNews
January 22, 2025
   
Excerpts:
   
It shouldn’t take an executive order to re-establish a human being’s constitutional right to live, let alone their basic biology. But, President Donald Trump has just ensured both are protected.
   
“‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” states his newly signed Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government executive order affirming there are only two genders.
   
“Male” means a “person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell,” added the legislation, which he read aloud in front of ousted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris just as the two were about to leave the White House on Monday.
   
Continued…
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White House
Executive Order
   
‘Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government’
   
Executive Order
January 20, 2025
   
Excerpts [emphasis added]:
   
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:
   
Section 1.  Purpose.
   
Continued…
   
Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.
   
Continued…
   
Sec. 2.  Policy and Definitions.  It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.  These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality, and the following definitions shall govern all Executive interpretation of and application of Federal law and administration policy:
   
Continued…
   
(d)  “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
   
(e)  “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.
   
Continued…
   
Sec. 3.  Recognizing Women Are Biologically Distinct From Men.
   
Continued…
   
(b)  Each agency and all Federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes.  Each agency should therefore give the terms “sex”, “male”, “female”, “men”, “women”, “boys” and “girls” the meanings set forth in section 2 of this order when interpreting or applying statutes, regulations, or guidance and in all other official agency business, documents, and communications.
   
Continued…
   
Sec. 6.  Bill Text.  Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs shall present to the President proposed bill text to codify the definitions in this order.
   
Continued…
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2025 SC Legislature Personhood

NO URGENCY ON PART OF THE “REPUBLICAN” SUPER-MAJORITY IN SC SENATE TO PASS SC STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM PLANK ESTABLISHING  PERSONHOOD FOR UNBORN HUMAN BEINGS

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NO URGENCY ON PART OF THE “REPUBLICAN” SUPER-MAJORITY IN SC SENATE TO PASS SC STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM PLANK ESTABLISHING PERSONHOOD FOR UNBORN HUMAN BEINGS

 

SC Senate Majority “Leader” Senator Shane Massey (“R”-Edgefield) has not said publicly whether he will even support advancing “abortion” legislation in 2025; much less whether he would support advancing legislation consistent with the SC State Republican Party Platform. However, Massey has previously publicly expressed his support for “exceptions”, and has even successfully proposed** adding “exceptions” to legislation in the past, undermining human personhood at fertilization.   

**
‘Rape and incest exceptions quietly added to SC abortion bill’  [ ADDED BY SENATOR SHANE MASSEY ]
The Associated Press
Jan 27, 2021

 
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All Unborn Human Beings are People. Persons. Period. Beginning at Fertilization. Period.
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‘SC lawmakers to return to the State House. Here’s their priorities for upcoming session’
AOL.com
TheState.com
Dec 2, 2024

 

 

Excerpts [emphasis in red added]:

Lawmakers will return to the State House Tuesday and Wednesday for their reorganization after the 2024 election.

General assembly members will elect chamber leadership, pick their seats in the chambers, and receive committee assignments when they return. But the expected leadership already is planning what next year’s legislative session will look like.

Continued…

After meeting with the GOP caucus in Sumter in November, coming up with an a bill to further restrict abortion is not at the top of the priority list, Massey said.

Massey wouldn’t say if and when they will jump into an abortion debate, but a conversation took place in the all-male Republican caucus.

“It was a good spirited conversation as always,” Massey said. “We had a good conversation about it. *** I don’t expect that will be our only caucus conversation about it.”

*** Great. Wonderful. So the Republican Super-Majority (34 out of 46 Senate seats; 74% Republican), led by Senator Shane Massey (R-Edgefield) [ who supports “exceptions” to a Ban on killing babies ] had “a good conversation” about whether to end the mass genocide and bloodshed which continues at South Carolina’s three child-murder by “abortion” centers in Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston, and they did not even decide to legislate to enact their own SC State Republican Party Platform to stop it.

 
House members have passed more restrictive abortion bans in recent years only for the pushes to stall in the Senate. Now with the 34-seat GOP supermajority in the state Senate, Republican may have more flexibility to push for a ban that starts earlier than the six-week mark of a pregnancy.
 
At least, that’s what House members want.

House Republican leadership has indicated that abortion restrictions need to start with the Senate.

“Some of those folks campaign on the fact that they’re pro-life, and some of the ones they beat, they claim we’re not pro-life,” House Majority Leader Davey Hiott said. “So let’s allow them to send it to us and we’ll take a look at it, because we’ve always been the one that started it, and it won’t sit over here if they send it to us.”

The hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus was more direct that the Senate should be able to pass more restrictions on abortion after the results of the election, which included the ouster of three Republican women who stood against the state’s current six-week law.

“I think the voters in South Carolina were very clear when it comes to life,” said state Rep. April Cromer, R-Anderson, and Freedom Caucus vice chairwoman. “We have three senators that lost their race solely based on their stand with the Democrats when it comes to life and I think that should speak to the current Senate. They gained a supermajority and there’s nothing that we can’t do for the people of South Carolina.”

[ Note: In addition to the defeat of the three pro-“abortion” female “Republican” Senators, four additional Republican seats were picked up in the 2024 Election, to increase the number of “Republican” SC Senators from 30 to 34 in the 46-member Senate. On Sept 8, 2022, a bill to ban 97%-98% of surgical and “abortion” pill “abortions” was defeated when a motion to stop a filibuster fell just two votes short of passing, with six “Republican” Senators not voting for cloture**** (one, Senator Rankin (R-Horry) had suddenly taken leave and departed the Senate chamber). So now, three of those six have been replaced (Gustafson, Senn, Shealy all defeated in June 2024), PLUS there are now four additional Republican Senate seats. The “Republicans” in the SC Senate are without excuse for not making it a priority, now, to pass pro-life legislation consistent with the written, published, Right to Life plank of the official South Carolina Republican State Party Platform. ]

Continued…

The Freedom Caucus pointed to the S.C. GOP platform in how it set up its priorities, including ending joint and several liability to make insurance rates in competitive, allowing families to direct tax dollars for their children’s education, closing the primaries, stopping diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in South Carolina, reducing the state income tax to 4.5%, and further restricting abortion access in the state.

Continued…

Both chambers now have Republican supermajorities, after the GOP gained four Senate seats in November. The House became a Republican supermajority after the 2022 election. Republicans make up more than two-thirds of each chamber, making them veto-proof if GOP members stick together. Also having a supermajority allows Republicans more flexibility to move forward with legislation without Democratic support and without the fear of opposition stalling bills from passage.

Continued…

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****

2022-2023 SC Legislative Session

[ Flyer ]
SIX SC Senate Pro-“Abortion” RINO “Republicans” voted* to
PERPETUATE MASS-GENOCIDE by “ABORTION” in South Carolina

http://christianlifeandliberty.net/2023-05-18-Flyer-Six-Pro-Abortion-RINOs-voted-to-perpetuate-mass-genocide-by-abortion-in-SC.pdf

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2025 Legislative Session:

BOTH SC HOUSE AND SC SENATE HAVE “REPUBLICAN” (?) SUPER-MAJORITIES: 

SC House: 88 R, 35 D, 1 vacancy; 72% R
SC Senate: 34 R, 12 D; 74% R

However SC House Republican Leadership** has not indicated it will work in 2025 to implement the SC GOP Party Platform*** to pass Personhood and end “abortion” in South Carolina !

Christians for Personhood
December 2, 2024

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2025 SC Legislature Personhood

2025 Legislative Session: BOTH SC HOUSE AND SC SENATE HAVE “REPUBLICAN”(?) SUPER-MAJORITIES: 

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2025 Legislative Session: BOTH SC HOUSE AND SC SENATE HAVE “REPUBLICAN”(?) SUPER-MAJORITIES: 
 
SC House: 88 R, 35 D, 1 vacancy; 72% R
SC Senate: 34 R, 12 D; 74% R
 
However SC House Republican Leadership** has not indicated it will work in 2025 to implement the SC GOP Party Platform*** to pass Personhood legislation and end “abortion” in South Carolina !

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**

House Speaker Murrell Smith
SUMTER

Speaker Pro-Tem Tommy Pope
YORK

House Majority Leader David Hiott
PICKENS

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‘A unified Statehouse GOP has big plans for South Carolina in 2025. New fights await.’

‘What will SC Republicans do with a supermajority?’

Post and Courier
Nov 15, 2024
https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/south-carolina-gop-statehouse-freedom-caucus-2025/article_c2d8f01c-a2aa-11ef-b0d2-4308d8d0d817.html

Excerpts [emphasis, comments in red added]:

COLUMBIA — It was a triumphant Statehouse return for House Speaker Murrell Smith and his leadership team for freshman orientation on Nov. 14.

The House Republican Caucus not only defended its two-thirds majority in the lower chamber this past Election Day but added on to it. Meanwhile, the state Senate will come into the 2025 legislative session with its first veto-proof supermajority in more than a century, handing the GOP broad leeway to decide the course of South Carolina’s government for the next two years. 

Continued…

Abortions are now banned after six weeks of pregnancy, while legislative leadership has shown little willingness to move any further.

Continued…

House Republican leadership will also need to confront divisions within their own ranks.

Hours before the House Republican Caucus released its proposals, the insurgent House Freedom Caucus — a roughly 21-member, hard-line faction within the GOP that has been excommunicated from the main caucus — introduced its own legislative agenda that mirrored many planks supported by their more mainline counterparts.

Continued…

There were notable differences between the Freedom Caucus and their counterparts in leadership.

Continued…

Largest of all was a proposal to push the state’s current abortion ban to a complete ban, including limits on access to mail-order medications at a time similar bans have come under scrutiny around the country.

Photo/caption

“I believe life begins at conception,” Rep. April Cromer, R-Anderson, told reporters.

House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, R-Easley, appeared open to doing something additional this session. [Open to doing what ??]

“We are 100 percent pro-life,” [Really ??? – Then why hasn’t the Republican-led SC House passed Personhood legislation more than once (in 2005) in the last 26 years !?!?]  he told reporters. “And so I believe you’re going to see that again. We have certain groups of our caucus that led that charge, and they’re working on some things. So we’ll wait to see what they present to us.”

Continued…

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***
2024
Our Mission: Promote our Platform and elect candidates who will support it! 
Our Fundamental Principles * The Right to Life 

– II To Establish Justice

THE RIGHT TO LIFE
[excerpts, emphasis added]
• We believe that the right to life is the first inalienable right, without which there can be no other rights.
• We believe that all human life has intrinsic worth and should be legally protected at all stages.
• We believe the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection applies to unborn children who should be classified as legal persons not as legal property.
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The KEY to ENDING / ABOLISHING ALL “ABORTION” in SOUTH CAROLINA

is to ESTABLISH IN LAW (CODIFY) ALL HUMAN BEINGS are LEGAL “PERSONS”, BEGINNING at FERTILIZATION / CONCEPTION, with NO EXCEPTIONS.

 

‘History of Personhood Legislation in South Carolina (1998 – 2022)’

http://christianlifeandliberty.net/2022-12-05-History-of-Personhood-Legislation-in-South-Carolina-1998-2022.pdf

 

‘ROE v. WADE Opinion, January 22, 1973: “If … personhood is established, the [pro-“abortion”] case, of course, collapses, …” ‘

Christians for Personhood
January 5, 2022
http://christiansforpersonhood.com/index.php/2022/01/05/roe-v-wade-opinion-january-22-1973-if-personhood-is-established-the-pro-abortion-case-of-course-collapses/

 

‘Videos / PERSONHOOD IS THE KEY TO ENDING “ABORTION” IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’

Christians for Personhood
Oct 25, 2021
http://christiansforpersonhood.com/index.php/2021/10/25/videos-personhood-is-the-key-to-ending-abortion-in-the-united-states-of-america

 

‘Audio / ROE v. WADE – FULL SECOND ORAL ARGUMENT BEFORE US SUPREME COURT – October 11, 1972’

“Thou shalt not kill (murder).”

Exodus 20:13, KJV

 

Jesus, God the Son, says,
“Thou shalt do no murder,…”

Matthew 19:18, KJV

 

God’s Law is the rightful just basis for man’s law.

 

Christians for Personhood
PO Box 12222

Columbia, SC 29211

2023 SC Legislature Abolitionism Establish Justice God's Law Justice Personhood SC Governor

PERSONHOOD trumps PRIVACY.

Published by:

SC Supreme Court
Columbia, SC
Heartbeat Law Oral Arguments
June 27, 2023

Orwellian Heartbeat Law (S474) is Unjust. PERSONHOOD Establishes Justice; Heartbeat Law (S474) Does Not.

PERSONHOOD trumps PRIVACY.
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SC Supreme Court Justice John Few Opinion from:

“Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, et al. v.
State of South Carolina, et al.”
Opinion No. 28127

January 5, 2023
https://www.sccourts.org/opinions/HTMLFiles/SC/28127.pdf

Excerpts from pp. 75 – 77:

Justice John Few:

“For years, a minority of the General Assembly attempted to enact legislation banning abortion altogether. See, e.g., S. 129, 121st Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (S.C. 2015). Those “personhood bills”- based on what would have become a legislative finding that human life begins at conception [FN 53] – consistently failed to gain majority support. [FN 54]” … [H5399 discussion omitted] … “if the State were to pass a total ban on abortion – despite a complete invasion of a pregnant woman’s right to privacy – the privacy invasion might be reasonable under article I, section 10, because “human life” has no countervailing interest; human life simply must be preserved. But the General Assembly failed to pass the personhood bills,” … [H5399 discussion omitted] … “Thus, despite consistent efforts, there is no legislative policy determination that human life – “personhood” – begins at conception, and there is no such State interest that justifies enacting the six-week bill.”
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The KEY to ENDING / ABOLISHING ALL “ABORTION” (Surgical, RU486, and Abortifacient “Birth Control”) in SOUTH CAROLINA is to ESTABLISH IN LAW (CODIFY) ALL HUMAN BEINGS are LEGAL “PERSONS”, BEGINNING at FERTILIZATION / CONCEPTION (NOT IMPLANTATION), with NO EXCEPTIONS.
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The right to life is ALREADY protected in South Carolina Statutory Law (Title 16, Chapter 3, Article 1) and Constitutional Law (Article I, Section 3) for “PERSONS”.

“PERSONS” are ALREADY PROTECTED !

ROE v. WADE Opinion, January 22, 1973:
“If … personhood is established, the [pro-“abortion”] case, of course, collapses, …”
Christians for Personhood
http://christiansforpersonhood.com/index.php/2022/01/05/roe-v-wade-opinion-january-22-1973-if-personhood-is-established-the-pro-abortion-case-of-course-collapses/

What is missing is to legally identify ALL HUMAN BEINGS as legal “PERSONS” beginning at fertilization/conception. ALL HUMAN BEINGS are already natural persons, created in the image of God, male and female (Genesis 1:27, KJV).

Black’s Law Dictionary (2009):
person. 1. “A human being”. – Also termed natural person.
http://christianlifeandliberty.net/2013-12-11-Blacks-Law-Dictionary-2009-Person=A-Human-Being.pdf

What is presently lacking is recognition in law of the Creator God-given, inherent, unalienable, natural personhood of all human beings, codified as legal personhood, at fertilization/conception (not implantation), with no exceptions.

ALL human beings are people, are persons, at fertilization, with no exceptions.
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PERSONHOOD plus
Constitutional Right to Life
(SC Constitution, Art I, Sec 3)

trumps…

Constitutional Right to Privacy
(SC Constitution, Art I, Sec 10)
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The Opinion of South Carolina Supreme Court Justice John Few, January 5, 2023 in the ruling overturning the previous Heartbeat Law (S.1 – 2021), specifically identified several recent personhood bills which had been filed in the SC Legislature since 2015 (principled personhood bills had in fact been on file every year in the SC Legislature since 1998).

SC Supreme Court Opinion
[ Filed January 5, 2023 ]

“Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, et al. v. State of South Carolina, et al.”
Opinion No. 28127

Excerpts:
Pages 1, 2, 5, 75 through 81, 90

(See especially pages 75 – 77)
http://christianlifeandliberty.net/2023-01-05-sc-supreme-court-opinion-heartbeat-law-pages-1-2-5-75-through-81-90.pdf

 

‘The KEY to ENDING / ABOLISHING ALL “ABORTION” in SC is to CODIFY ALL HUMAN BEINGS are LEGAL “PERSONS” at FERTILIZATION’
Christians for Personhood
http://christiansforpersonhood.com/index.php/2023/02/27/the-key-to-ending-abolishing-all-abortion-in-sc-is-to-codify-all-human-beings-are-legal-persons-at-fertilization/
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Principled personhood legislation was first filed in the SC Legislature 25 years ago, in February 1998, and has been on file every year since through 2022. Personhood legislation passed the full SC House of Representatives in 2005 (H3213), albeit flawed by still allowing use of an abortifacient drug in rape cases. Personhood legislation passed out of the SC Senate Judiciary Committee in both 2016 (S719) and 2018 (S217) and was placed on the full SC Senate calendar in both years, where the legislation died.

‘History of Personhood Legislation in South Carolina (1998 – 2022)’
http://christianlifeandliberty.net/2022-12-05-History-of-Personhood-Legislation-in-South-Carolina-1998-2022.pdf
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The official SC GOP Party Platform is a PERSONHOOD Platform

The South Carolina Republican Party Platform
https://sc.gop/assets/uploads/2022/09/SCGOP-Platform.pdf

Excerpt:

Article II – To Establish Justice

The Right to Life

“We believe the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection applies to unborn children. Unborn children should be classified as legal persons not as legal property.”
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‘Videos / PERSONHOOD IS THE KEY TO ENDING “ABORTION” IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’
Christians for Personhood
http://christiansforpersonhood.com/index.php/2021/10/25/videos-personhood-is-the-key-to-ending-abortion-in-the-united-states-of-america/

 

THE KEY TO ENDING CHILD-MURDER BY “ABORTION” IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND IN AMERICA IS TO CODIFY THE CREATOR GOD-GIVEN, INHERENT, UNALIENABLE, NATURAL PERSONHOOD OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS, AS LEGAL PERSONHOOD, IN LAW, AT FERTILIZATION, AND THAT WITHOUT EXCEPTION, BECAUSE …

 

GOD SAYS,

“THOU SHALT NOT KILL (MURDER).”

EXODUS 20:13, KJV

 

Steve Lefemine
Christians for Personhood

ChristiansforPersonhood.com
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‘SOUTH CAROLINA SUPREME COURT JUSTICE EXPLICITLY NAMES SEVERAL PERSONHOOD BILLS IN HIS HEARTBEAT LAW OPINION – JANUARY 5, 2023’
Christians for Personhood
http://christiansforpersonhood.com/index.php/2023/01/08/south-carolina-supreme-court-justice-explicitly-names-several-personhood-bills-in-his-heartbeat-law-opinion-jan-5-2023/