Legislative Session Week in Review: Feb. 21
-
February 21, 2025Happy Friday! Can you believe Lent is only 12 days away? The 40 days of Lent offer us a special time to prepare our hearts for Christ’s passion and resurrection — an act of love so great it redeemed the whole world. Lent is a time to focus especially on prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We begin to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection by denying ourselves first to appreciate and understand the glory of his sacrifice. As Ven. Fulton Sheen said, “Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.”
In stark contrast to Christ’s redemption of the world and all within it, on March 7, Brad K. Sigmon is scheduled to be executed at Broad River Correctional Institution. Catholics uphold the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. Please join us for a vigil for life on the night of the execution outside the facility, 4460 Broad River Road in Columbia. For information, contact Brian Hansen: [email protected].
This week, the legislature continued its work on reinstating school choice for South Carolinians as well as developing protections for minors on social media platforms.
See below for the South Carolina Legislature and national updates!Feb. 19First — On Wednesday, the House Education and Public Works Committee chaired by Rep. Shannon Erickson took up the bill designed to restore school choice in South Carolina (S. 62). After much debate, the committee decided to remove the income requirements and opened the school choice program to all South Carolina families, beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year. If passed into law, the program would be open to all South Carolina families.
The committee heard hours of testimony on the program, including from our schools — Divine Redeemer in Hanahan and St. Joseph in Anderson. Many students from both schools were affected by the 2024 state Supreme Court ruling that blocked the former education scholarship account program from being used for tuition at nonpublic schools.
We expect S. 62 to be debated as early as next week on the House floor. Please urge your House members to support school choice and offer students and families in South Carolina the ability to choose the best form of education for their unique needs.Second — H. 3431, the Social Media Regulation Act, was debated by the House of Representatives and passed by a vote of 89-14. The bill will now be sent to the Senate. If signed into law, H. 3431 will provide safeguards for minors using social media. It will empower parents to have greater control of their child’s social media access, such as screentime, plus more control of who can directly message their child. Additionally, the bill would regulate social media companies’ ability to use a minor’s personal data.
Social media has been shown to harm the mental health of minors as well as increase addiction-like behaviors. The Catholic Conference supports the strengthening of parental rights over social media and commends the House of Representatives for their passage of the bill.In the NationFeb. 20 – The Trump administration signed an executive order that would expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
In response to this action, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement, saying the IVF industry treats human beings like products and this executive order is “fatally flawed.” It “stands in regrettable contrast to the promising pro-life actions of the Administration last month. … we will strongly oppose any policy that expands destruction of human life, or forces others to subsidize the cost.” Read the full statement HERE. In vitro fertilization denies the humanity of the preborn at conception. It turns human life into a commodity to be bought and sold. The Catholic Conferenceprays for a reversal of this decision, and for our state and national governments “to expand support for restorative reproductive medicine that can help ethically treat often-overlooked root causes of infertility,” in solidarity with the Catholicbishops.
Learn more about why the Church opposes IVF HERE.