Attorney General’s Office issues Opinion: South Carolina’s Paid Parental Leave laws include stillbirths

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Today, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office released an official opinion concluding that state law on paid parental leave covers parents who experience the tragedy of a stillbirth. 

The opinion was issued in response to a request from State Representative Neal Collins, who raised concerns that some teachers and state employees were being denied the benefit following a stillbirth, despite going through the same major medical event as parents of children born alive. 

“Based on the text of the law and longstanding South Carolina precedent recognizing unborn children as ‘persons,’ it is our view that the General Assembly intended for the term ‘birth’ to include stillbirths,” the opinion states. “To interpret the law otherwise would lead to an absurd and unjust result.” 

The opinion notes that neither of the statutes governing paid parental leave, §§ 8-11-150 and 8-11-151 of the South Carolina Code, restricts the benefit to “live births.” Instead, the statutes use the broader term “birth.” The Attorney General’s Office concluded that, given the General Assembly’s clear policy choices to recognize and protect unborn life in other contexts, parents who deliver a stillborn child are entitled to the same paid parental leave as those whose child is born alive. 

“Giving birth to a stillborn child is physiologically identical to giving birth to a living child, although far more traumatic,” the opinion emphasizes. “Parents in this circumstance deserve the time, support, and benefits guaranteed under law to recover from their tragic loss.” 

While advisory in nature, the opinion urges the General Assembly to clarify the law to prevent continued delays or denials of paid parental leave for grieving parents. 

“This clarification is especially important to ensure that parents who endure the heartbreak of stillbirth are not forced to fight for benefits they were already promised,” the opinion concludes. 

You can read the full opinion here.