Legislative Session Week in Review: Feb. 14
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February 14, 2025Happy St. Valentine’s Day!Since little is known about the life of St. Valentine, his feast was removed from the Roman liturgical calendar in 1969. However, we still honor St. Valentine for his heroic faith and refusal to worship pagan idols and false gods. Various legends exist about St. Valentine; some believe that when he was in prison for his faith, he healed the blind daughter of his imprisoners and left a note for her signed “Your Valentine.” May we be filled with zeal for our faith and love for those who persecute us.
St. Valentine, patron of happy marriages, engaged couples, beekeepers, greetings, and young people, pray for us!
Brad Sigmon is scheduled for execution at Broad River Correctional Institution on Friday, March 7th. As Catholics, we uphold the dignity of every human life. Join the Catholic vigil on the night of the execution at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. For more information, please contact Brian Hansen at [email protected].
This week at the State House, both chambers were hard at work on bills that would create protections and regulations on social media platforms for children and teenagers.
See below for the South Carolina Legislature and national updates!Feb. 12First - On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the state Supreme Court began its third round of hearings on the 2023 Heartbeat bill. A preborn child’s heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks of life. While the law does not specifically state that abortion is prohibited after six weeks, it is the common consensus that this is when the heartbeat is present.
Planned Parenthood challenges the law and argues that the state should allow abortion up until the preborn child is nine weeks old. The abortion business also stated that they had lost over 75% of abortion revenue since the bill went into effect.
The Catholic Conference asks the faithful to pray for the court and their deliberations, that they may use their authority to hold firm and protect the preborn for the violence of abortion.Second – The Senate unanimously passed both S. 28, “AI child abuse,” and S. 29, “Morphed images of identifiable children” on Wednesday. The bill will protect children from being exploited by people using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The images and faces of children can be utilized to create sexually explicit or violent content, which is a harmful violation of their privacy.
The Catholic Conference commends the Senate’s passage of these bills as well as Senator Brad Hutto for sponsoring this legislation. We urge the House to pass these bills quickly to keep up with the dangers posed by AI.Feb. 13First - The Age-Appropriate Design for Social Media bill (S. 268), sponsored by Senator Sean Bennett, was heard in the Senate Labor, Commerce, and Industry Committee on Thursday.
The bill seeks to protect minors from the dangers of social media and requires social media companies to offer parents tools for regulating their child’s social media presence and usage.
Social media use has been linked with many issues in children and teenagers, such as a decreased sense of self-worth, impulse control problems, poor attention, poor-quality sleep, mental health problems and disordered emotional development. Social media effectively makes the user into a public figure. Parents must have tools to regulate their child’s public presence in order to protect them from harm.
This bill, among other things, would require social media companies to offer parental controls to give parents the ability to protect their children online. Also, it would regulate the collection of personal data from children that is used to make social media especially addictive, such as algorithms.Second - On Thursday, the House Judiciary committee amended the S.C. Social Media Regulation Act, H. 3431, to more closely resemble S. 268, the Age-Appropriate Design for Social Media bill. The committee approved the new version of the bill and sent it to the House floor, where it is expected to be debated as early as next week.
As discussed above, social media can be tremendously addictive, and parental oversight is long overdue. Tell your representative to support H. 3431 and bring parental rights to the world of social media!In the NationFeb. 6 - President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a taskforce to eradicate anti-Christian bias in the government. The order reads: “My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians.”
The executive order specifically mentions the dramatic rise in attacks on Catholic churches and the government’s previous refusal to bring the perpetrators to justice (Click HERE to see Catholic Vote’s map of attacks and vandalism conducted on Catholic churches since 2020). The Catholic Conference commends this action to combat unwarranted government action against faithful Christians. Read more HERE.Feb. 10 - Pope Francis released a letter on the issue of immigration in the United States. On behalf of the United Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio responded to the Holy Father, asking, “for [his] continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all.” Read the archbishop's full letter HERE.