The Supreme Court of South Carolina has overturned a law banning abortions in the state after 6 weeks gestation, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, stating that the law violates the state’s constitutional right to privacy.
In February of 2021, after Governor Henry McMaster signed the South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act into law, Planned Parenthood immediately filed a lawsuit, claiming that the 6-week ban was “in flagrant violation of nearly five decades of settled Supreme Court precedent.” The lawsuit accomplished temporary bans while litigation continued, however ultimately failed in overturning the state law.
Once the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Heath and subsequently struck down nearly 50 years of legal precedent under Roe v. Wade — granting states the right to ban abortion once again, the initial reasoning for the 2021 lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood against South Caroline became entirely obsolete.
A year later, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic filed yet another lawsuit against the state, now claiming that the heartbeat bill violated the right to privacy found ambiguously within the state constitution. This week, the state Supreme Court ruled 3-2 in favor of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s second lawsuit attempt, and stuck down the 6-week abortion ban, which made exceptions for conception in cases of rape or incest, and for the life of the mother.
State bans on abortion before 10-weeks of gestation grew in number over the past few years after scientific evidence unequivocally suggested that most fetal heartbeats can be detected by 6-weeks, some even sooner.
Justice Kaye Hearn, who wrote the majority opinion, stated the following:
“We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman’s right to privacy. While this right is not absolute, and must be balanced against the State’s interest in protecting unborn life, this Act, which severely limits—and in many instances completely forecloses—abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy and is therefore unconstitutional.”
South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn — Majority Opinion
Additionally, Justice Hearn noted that while the state has the legal authority to place restrictions on abortion, regulations must provide the woman with “sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy.” Justice Hearn concluded that six weeks is not a “reasonable” amount of time when weighing such decisions. The court’s opinion confirms that when life becomes valuable and worthy of legal protection is entirely subjective rather than objective — an ever-changing goal post which can be adjusted whenever convenient.
South Carolina has reverted to a previous law, banning abortions after 22 weeks of gestation, 10 weeks after the baby has the capacity to feel pain in utero.
