Here’s when SC Supreme Court will hear arguments on state’s 6-week abortion ban
The state Supreme Court will decide whether the state’s new six-week abortion ban is constitutional.
Arguments in the case are scheduled for June 27.
Lawmakers last month approved a revised six-week abortion ban written specifically to respond to a court decision in January striking down the state’s previous six-week law.
The court said the the six-week ban violated the state constitution’s right to privacy.
Both versions of the law banned abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected during a pregnancy, which is typically at the six-week mark.
Since the court’s 3-2 decision in January, the court’s only female justice, Kaye Hearn, has been replaced by Gary Hill, making the court all male. Hearn, who wrote the majority opinion in January, reached the the mandatory 72-year-old retirement age.
The revised law bans abortion after the six-week mark, but includes exceptions for rape, incest, to prevent the death of the mother and a fatal fetal anomaly. The exceptions for rape and incest are up to the 12-week mark under law passed this year.
Under the law previously struck down, the exceptions for rape and incest went up to 20 weeks.
The lawsuit challenging the revised law, filed by the Greenville Women’s Clinic and Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, was brought before Circuit Judge Clifton Newman, who prevented the law from being enforced. That kept the status quo in place to allow abortions to take place in South Carolina up to the 20th week of a pregnancy.
Out-of-state patients seeking to terminate a pregnancy have driven up South Carolina’s abortion numbers because some other states are more restrictive. Among the reasons lawmakers pushed for the six-week law is to stop people from traveling to the state for an abortion.
Gov. Henry McMaster, who signed the new law last month, almost immediately asked the state Supreme Court to take up the case after Newman blocked the law.
“Although I had hoped the Supreme Court would agree to stay the injunction pending appeal, I am pleased that the Supreme Court granted our request to expedite this case,” McMaster said in a statement. “I will continue to fight to protect life and defend state law, and I am confident that this law is constitutional and that, at the end of the day, both the right to life and the rule of law will prevail.”
In a statement, Attorney General Alan Wilson said his office looks “forward to making our arguments in court and defending the rule of law and right to life.”
Opponents of the law say most women do not know they are pregnant before the six-week mark, effectively making the law effectively a complete ban.
“Many women also do not have any of the physical indicators of pregnancy, including a missed period, during early pregnancy. Many women do not menstruate at regular intervals and/or sometimes go beyond 6 weeks without experiencing a menstrual period, and therefore may not realize they are pregnant when they miss a period for that reason,” Dr. Terry Buffkin, a board-certified OBGYN who is licensed to practice in South Carolina and is the co-owner of the Greenville Women’s Clinic, said in the lawsuit.
State legislatures have been able to enact abortion restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court in its Dobbs decision in June 2022 struck down the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion.
This story was originally published June 6, 2023 at 3:18 PM.
