South Carolina Senate OKs Tax Credits for Donations to Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers
The State Senate gave second reading approval Tuesday to a strong, principled pro-life bill offering state tax credits to individuals and businesses that support pregnancy resource centers, adoption agencies, and maternity homes, among other non-profit pro-life and pro-family establishments in South Carolina.
The bi-partisan legislation called the Pregnancy Resource Tax Credit Bill received second reading without objection. The bill could receive final Senate passage on Wednesday, April 2, and move on to the House of Representatives where the approval process must continue.
South Carolina Citizens for Life supports the legislation as part of its Visioning A Way Forward from Dobbs to a Culture of Life which includes supporting policies that provide resource care for the unborn members of our human family and their mothers.
Eligible charitable organizations include those that provide adoption services, prevent abuse, neglect, abandonment, exploitation or trafficking of children, and provide assistance related to carrying a pregnancy to term, preventing abortion, and promoting healthy childbirth.
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The law requires eligible establishments to state in writing to the S.C. Department of Revenue that the organization “does not provide, pay for, or provide coverage of abortion and does not financially support any other entity that provides, pays for or provides coverage for abortion.”
South Carolina Citizens for Life strongly supports the legislation S 32 sponsored by Senators Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley/Charleston; Matt Leber, R-Charleston,/Colleton/ Dorchester; Rex Rice, R-Greenville/Pickens; and Mike Reichenbach, R-Florence. On Tuesday, Senators Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, and Jeff Zell, R-Calhoun/Clarendon/
In a letter to all the members of the Senate Finance Committee where the bill originated, SCCL President Lisa Van Riper wrote, “Science leaves no doubt that life in the womb is alive and of the human species. This fact is acknowledged in the South Carolina Code of Law 44-41-610 (14) that states ‘Unborn child means an individual organism of the species homo sapiens from conception until live birth.’ The South Carolina General Assembly has the opportunity now to continue to build the culture of life by enacting pro-life policies such as S 32.” Since 1990, South Carolina lawmakers have enacted 15 laws to protect and care for mothers and their unborn children, most recently the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection Act.
In addition to SCCL, organizations supporting the Pregnancy Resource Tax Credit Bill include the South Carolina Association of Pregnancy Care Centers, Palmetto Family, Lifeline Children’s Services, A Moment of Hope, and the Catholic Diocese of Charleston among others.
A tax credit reduces the amount of taxes owed dollar-for-dollar. Donors who support federally recognized charitable organizations are eligible for tax deductions which reduce the amount of taxable income. Tax credits, however, have the potential to bring in larger amounts of money and give taxpayers some say over how their tax dollars are used. For example, a taxpayer who owed $1,000 in state income taxes could designate 50 percent of the taxes to a qualified organization that meets the requirements of S 32.
LifeNews Note: Holly Gatling is the executive director for South Carolina Citizens for Life.
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