BMJ (Online), 2023, Vol.380, p.711-711In January 2023, 24 Republican legislators in the US state of South Carolina sponsored the South Carolina Equal Protection Act of 2023, a bill designed to extend constitutional rights to embryos and fetuses at all
stages of development, granting them equality with women already born. The bill makes women and pregnant people who undergo abortion subject to the
state’s homicide laws and punishments, including the death penalty.