South Carolina Supreme Court strikes down state abortion ban
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court struck down Thursday a ban on abortion after cardiac activity is detected — typically around six weeks — ruling the restriction violates the state constitution's right to privacy.
The 3-2 decision comes nearly two years after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure into law. The ban, which included exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest or pregnancies that endangered the patient’s life, drew lawsuits almost immediately. Since then, legal challenges have made their way through both state and federal courts.
“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," Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in the majority opinion.
Currently, South Carolina bars most abortions at 20 weeks.
On Twitter, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre applauded the justices' clampdown “on the state's extreme and dangerous abortion ban.”
“Women should be able to make their own decisions about their bodies,” Jean-Pierre added.
Varying orders have given the law’s supporters and opponents both cause for celebration and dismay. Those seeking abortions in the state have seen the legal window expand to the previous limit of 20 weeks before returning to latest restrictions and back again.
Federal courts had previously suspended the law. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade allowed the restrictions to take place — for just a brief period. The state Supreme Court temporarily blocked it this past August as the justices considered a new challenge.
The high court's momentous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization set off a flurry of activity at the state level. Republican-dominated states moved forward with new restrictions while abortion rights' advocates sought additional safeguards. With federal abortion protections gone, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic sued in July under the South Carolina constitution’s right to privacy. Meanwhile, other states have seen challenges to restrictions as a matter of religious freedom.
In South Carolina, lawyers representing the state Legislature have argued that the right to privacy should be interpreted narrowly. During oral arguments this past October, they argued historical context suggests lawmakers intended to protect against searches and seizures when they ratified the right in 1971. Planned Parenthood attorneys representing the challengers have said the right to privacy encompasses abortion. They argued previous state Supreme Court decisions already extended the right to bodily autonomy.
Chief Justice Donald Beatty and Justice John Cannon Few joined Hearn in the majority. Justice George James, Jr., wrote in a dissenting opinion that the right to privacy protected only against searches and seizures. Justice John Kittredge wrote separately that the state constitution protects privacy rights beyond searches and seizures but did not apply in this case.
While Few said a restriction on abortion's timing is “clearly reasonable,” he added that the law in question gave those considering it “no choice at all.”
“Thus, if a substantial percentage of pregnant women cannot know of their pregnancy in time to have meaningful discussions, engage in sufficient deliberation and prayer, and then make timely arrangements to carry out an abortion, then I cannot envision a winning argument that meaningful choice exists or that the denial of that choice is not an unreasonable invasion of privacy,” Few wrote in a concurring opinion.
Multiple justices emphasized that Thursday's ruling confronted only legal questions and rejected the political aspects of the debate.
The justices’ limited ruling left the door open for future changes. The state House and Senate failed to agree on additional restrictions during this past summer’s special session on abortion. Still, a small but growing group of conservative lawmakers have vowed to push that envelope once more this legislative session — despite some Republican leaders’ previous insistence no agreement is possible.
In a statement to The Associated Press, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson applauded the ruling Thursday, which he said amounted to “a voice of reason and sanity to temper the Republicans' legislative actions to strip rights away from women and doctors.”
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