Columbia, South Carolina - Republicans in South Carolina have introduced legislation that would make getting an abortion a capital offense punishable with the death penalty.

The bill, known as the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023, would change the definition of "person" in state law to include a fertilized egg.

That move would make abortion punishable under South Carolina's homicide laws, which include the death penalty as a possible sentence.

The measure, undersigned by 21 GOP co-sponsors in the South Carolina House, has been proposed to protect the "sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God," the bill claims.

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The legislation includes exceptions if the pregnant person if is "compelled to [get an abortion] by the threat of imminent death or great bodily injury," or to save the life of the pregnant person "when all reasonable alternatives to save the life of the unborn child were attempted or none were available."

The proposal makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest and marks the latest GOP effort to limit reproductive freedom since the fall of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively guaranteed the right to an abortion up to 23-24 weeks of pregnancy.

South Carolina recently brought back executions by firing squad in May 2021, with people on death row given the choice whether to be killed by firing squad or electric chair if lethal injection drugs aren't available. The law is currently under review by the state Supreme Court.