South Carolina: The supreme court of South Carolina has struck down the state’s “fetal heartbeat” law, which bans abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The court referred to the ban as an “unreasonable restriction that violates a woman’s constitutional right to privacy.”

In the ruling, judge Mr. Kaye Hearn wrote that the “state constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s decision to have an abortion.”

Mr. Hearn remarked that “while the state could set some limits on abortion, any regulation on privacy in regards to the procedure should give a woman sufficient time to determine she is pregnant and to take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy.”

“Six weeks was not a reasonable period of time after which to ban abortion,” Mr. Hearn added.

The Republican governor of South Carolina Mr. Henry McMaster commented that “our state supreme court has found a right in our constitution that was never intended by the people of South Carolina. With this opinion, the court has clearly exceeded its authority.”

“We respectfully, but strongly, disagree with the court’s ruling,” South Carolina attorney general Mr. Alan Wilson expressed.

The law was overturned in a narrow three-to-two vote, with the majority siding with the plaintiffs, including two South Carolina physicians, a women’s clinic in the city of Greenville, and the healthcare nonprofit Planned Parenthood.

The nonprofit’s South Atlantic branch shared on Twitter that “this is a monumental victory in the movement to protect legal abortion in the south. We, as well as our partners, will continue our fight to block any bill that allows politicians to interfere in people’s private health care decisions.”

South Carolina’s Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act was originally passed in February 2021, with Republicans hailing the bill as a “tremendous victory for the unborn children.”

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