The South Carolina Supreme Court today ruled that the state’s law that bans abortions at six weeks into a pregnancy is unconstitutional. In a 3-2 vote, the justices determined that the law’s restrictions violate the state constitution's right to privacy.
The decision comes about two years after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure, colloquially know as the “Heartbeat Bill,” into law. The measure banned abortions after cardiac activity from the fetus was detected. It included exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape and incest or circumstances that endangered the pregnant person’s life.
In the ruling’s conclusion, Chief Justice Donald Beatty wrote:
“We hold that our state constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s decision to have an abortion. The State unquestionably has the authority to limit the right of privacy that protects women from state interference with her decision, but any such limitation must be reasonable and it must be meaningful in that the time frames imposed must afford a woman sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy. Six weeks is, quite simply, not a reasonable period of time for these two things to occur, and therefore the Act violates our state Constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable invasions of privacy.”
The ruling means abortion remains legal in South Carolina through 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
