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H3113 amends South Carolina's infant safe haven law to authorize approved locations to install certified newborn safety devices as a lawful alternative surrender point, extending criminal immunity, civil immunity, and procedural protections to their use.
OUR POSITIONEvery newborn child bears the image of God. That conviction is not merely theological sentiment; it is the foundation for a legal order that takes seriously the protection of the most vulnerable lives. House Bill 3113 amends Section 63-7-40 of the South Carolina Code to authorize designated safe havens to offer newborn safety devices as a lawful means of surrendering an infant, extending to that method the same legal framework that currently governs surrender to a staff member or employee.
The bill defines a newborn safety device as a padded and climate-controlled receptacle. Devices installed at hospitals or hospital outpatient facilities must be conspicuous and visible to hospital staff. This definition, written directly into the statute, ensures that any device used under the law meets a baseline standard of physical safety for the infant placed inside it.
Every protection the existing law affords to in-person surrender is carried through to device-based surrender. A person who leaves an infant in a newborn safety device is shielded from criminal prosecution on the same terms as a person who hands an infant to a staff member, provided the infant is not more than sixty days old and the person is a parent or acting at a parent's direction. Safe havens that offer a device, along with their agents, receive the same civil and criminal immunity as those that accept infants through staff contact, so long as they comply with all provisions of the section.
The bill also addresses the informational obligations that accompany device-based surrender. The required materials, including the department-provided form concerning the infant's background and medical history and the prepaid return envelope, must be physically included inside every newborn safety device. This ensures that a parent who uses a device at an unstaffed hour still receives the same information about legal consequences and the opportunity to provide medical history that a parent surrendering to a staff member would receive in person.
From a faith-informed perspective, the proper response to a parent in crisis is neither condemnation nor indifference, but provision. This bill provides a lawful, safe, and dignified path for the moments when no staff member is present and no other option is within reach. It does not remove any existing protection, counseling resource, or legal safeguard; it extends every existing protection to a new point of access. The American Council supports H3113 without reservation.
H3113 was referred to the House Committee on Judiciary in December 2024 and formally introduced and read for the first time on January 14, 2025; it remains in that committee as of the most recent history entry. The bill has attracted additional co-sponsors as recently as January 2026, which signals continued sponsor investment in moving it forward, though committee scheduling has not yet been publicly reported. South Carolina's two-year legislative session means the bill does not expire at the end of 2025, but constituent contact directed at Judiciary Committee members is most consequential now, before the committee sets its hearing calendar for the active session weeks ahead.