S.C. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
Reverses earlier decision, largely bans procedure
South Carolina’s newly all-male Supreme Court upheld a new law banning most abortions after roughly six weeks, a move that could once again shake up the nation’s abortion landscape in the Southeast.
The 4-1 decision is a reversal from January, when the court issued a 3-2 decision finding a similar law violated the right to privacy in the state constitution. That opinion was written by the state’s sole female justice, who has since retired because of the court’s age limits. The Legislature replaced her with a male justice, making South Carolina the only state in the nation to have an all-male state supreme court.
Writing for the majority, Justice John W. Kittredge wrote that this year’s law was “materially different” than the previous version the court struck down.
“This new balance struck in the 2023 Act between the competing interests of the mother and unborn child was combined with the legislature’s new focus on contraceptives and early pregnancy testing, as well as a repeal of the statutes that codified the Roe v. Wade trimester framework,” Kittredge wrote.
In late May, the state’s Republican-majority Legislature passed a new “heartbeat” law banning abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected after multiple failed attempts to impose even stricter limits. The law includes exceptions if the woman’s life is at risk or if continuing the pregnancy could cause her “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” It also allows abortions in the case of fetal anomalies and allows abortions before 12 weeks in rape and incest cases.
On the Senate floor, one key GOP leader said the bill was written in a way that attempted to skirt the justices’ objections to the original law. Barely 24 hours after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the ban into law, a South Carolina judge moved to pause the new abortion restrictions until the state’s highest court could review the measure. The move meant abortions were legal again in South Carolina up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
After the opinion was released Wednesday, clinics immediately stopped performing abortions for patients who are more than six weeks pregnant out of an abundance of caution. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the ban kicked in right away, and Catherine
Humphreville, an attorney with Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the group is seeking clarity from the court on the effective date of the ruling.
“This is already causing chaos and confusion throughout the state,” Humphreville told reporters on a call Wednesday. Abortion rights groups disagreed that the law was substantially different from the one struck down earlier this year.