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The Supreme Court of South Carolina canceled on thursday a ban on abortion after cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks into the pregnancy, ruling that the restriction violates the state constitutional right to privacy.
The decision comes nearly two years after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure into law.
South Carolina’s ban on abortion rights, which included exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest or pregnancies that endangered the patient’s life, prompted lawsuits almost immediately. Since then, legal challenges against this state law have made their way through state and federal courts.
“The state unquestionably has the authority to limit the right to privacy that protects women from state interference in their decision, but any such limitation must be reasonable and significant in the sense that the time limits imposed must provide the woman enough time to determine if she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy. Six weeks is simply not a reasonable amount of time for both of these things to occur, and therefore the law violates our state Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable invasions of privacy,” said Judge Kaye Hearn, who wrote the opinion of the majority of the state high court judges.
At the moment, South Carolina prohibits most abortions at 20 weeks.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued in July against that restriction under the right to privacy of the South Carolina constitution. Lawyers representing him have said that the right to privacy encompasses abortion.
“We are heartened by today’s ruling by the South Carolina Supreme Court on the state’s extreme and dangerous ban on abortion,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted. “Women should be able to make their own decisions about their bodies.”
We are encouraged by South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruling today on the state’s extreme and dangerous abortion ban. Women should be able to make their own decisions about their bodies. — Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) January 5, 2023
Still, a small but growing group of conservative lawmakers has vowed to bring the issue of abortion restriction to the state once again this legislative session.