South Carolina H 4639: Reproductive Health

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 4639 Text of Previous Version (Dec. 17, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 4639

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH 
CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ENACTING THE "REPRODUCTIVE EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT 
THROUGH OPTIMAL RESTORATION (RESTORE) ACT" BY ADDING CHAPTER 141 TO TITLE 44 SO 
AS TO EXPAND AND PROMOTE RESEARCH AND DATA COLLECTION ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONDITIONS 
THAT ARE LEADING CAUSES OF INFERTILITY, TO PROVIDE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR 
HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS REGARDING THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF REPRODUCTIVE 
HEALTH CONDITIONS; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "Reproductive Empowerment and Support 
Through Optimal Restoration (RESTORE) Act."

SECTION 2. The General Assembly finds that:

 (1) There is a 
growing interest among women and men to proactively assess their overall health 
and understand how factors, such as their age and medical history, contribute 
to their reproductive health and fertility.

 (2) Women and men 
are worthy of the highest standard of medical care, including the opportunity 
to assess, understand, and improve their reproductive health. Yet, many women 
and men do not receive adequate information about their reproductive health nor 
have access to restorative reproductive medicine.

 (3) Reproductive 
health conditions are the leading cause of infertility, affecting eleven 
percent of women and nine percent of men in the United States. Leading 
conditions include endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, blocked fallopian 
tubes, and male-factor infertility.

 (4) Research shows 
that male and female infertility is typically due to four or more conditions or 
factors, with the diagnosis shared equally between men and women.

 (5) There is a gap 
in research and care for reproductive health conditions that affect a majority 
of women struggling with "unexplained infertility." Unexplained infertility 
accounts for fifteen to thirty percent of all diagnoses of infertility.

 (6) Restorative 
reproductive medicine aims to examine how women's reproductive functions and 
cycle interact with the rest of the female body.

 (7) Male-factor 
infertility and reproductive dysfunction has been on the rise since the 1970s, 
with a one percent decrease in sperm count, testosterone, and total fertility 
per year.

 (8) Restorative 
reproductive medicine can eliminate barriers to successful conception, 
pregnancy, and birth. It can also address some causes of recurrent 
miscarriages.

 (9) Restorative 
reproductive medicine alleviates other difficult symptoms associated with 
reproductive health conditions including, but not limited to, painful periods, 
painful flare-ups, bloating, inflammation, heavy periods, irregular periods, 
nerve pain, bowel symptoms, pain during sexual intercourse, and back pain. It 
also addresses common symptoms related to male-factor infertility, including 
erectile dysfunction.

SECTION 3. Title 44 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

CHAPTER 141

Reproductive Health

 Section 
44-141-10. As used in this chapter:

 (1) "Adenomyosis" 
means a disease, the cause of which is unknown and often existing concurrently 
with endometriosis, that occurs when endometrial tissue, which normally lines 
the inside of the uterus, grows down into the muscle layer of the uterus, 
increasing the risk of miscarriage and preterm labor, and possibly contributing 
to infertility.

 (2) "Assisted 
reproductive technology" means any treatments or procedures that involve the 
handling of a human egg, sperm, and embryo outside of the body with the intent 
of facilitating a pregnancy, including artificial insemination, intrauterine 
insemination, in vitro fertilization, gamete intrafallopian fertilization, 
zygote intrafallopian fertilization, egg, embryo, and sperm cryopreservation, 
and egg or embryo donation.

 (3) "Blocked 
fallopian tubes" means a condition where the fallopian tubes are blocked by 
tubal spasm, scarring from inflammatory conditions, debris, tubal polyps, tubal 
ligation, prior ectopic pregnancy, pelvic adhesions, endometriosis, or prior 
pelvic infection, including pelvic inflammatory disease, which is often the 
cause of infertility in women, making achieving pregnancy difficult, if not 
impossible, and which can be treated with a fallopian tube recanalization, 
tubotubal anastomosis (tubal ligation reversal), and 
neosalpingostomy/fimbrioplasty.

 (4) "Endometriosis" 
means a disease in which tissue resembling endometrial lining tissue grows 
outside of the uterus and:

 (a) 
adheres to different organs, disfiguring the organs and, through scar tissue or 
adhesions;

 (b) 
has the capacity to result in organs adhering to the pelvic wall