6 things to know about the 6-week abortion ban passed by the SC General Assembly

Here are six things to know about the six-week abortion ban legislation that cleared the final hurdle in the General Assembly Tuesday.

The South Carolina Senate voted 27-19 to approve their six-week abortion ban bill, S. 474, modified by the S.C. House, which sends the bill to Gov. Henry McMaster. The governor has said he will sign it.

1. The bill prohibits abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically around the sixth week of pregnancy. Most women do not know they’re pregnant by then.
   
   
2. The bill includes exceptions for rape and incest within 12 weeks, fatal fetal anomaly and the mother’s life.
   
   
3. The bill requires child support to start at conception and allows judges to decide if a minor can have an abortion should a parent or guardian be unavailable.
   
   
4. Doctors would be subject to civil liability and lose their medical license if found they violated the law.
   
   
5. Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement her organization will sue the state as they did when the Legislature passed a similar bill in 2021. It will be up to the court to decide whether the law would go into effect during the challenge.
   
   
6. In January, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled 3-2 that the 2021 law violated the state’s constitutional right to privacy. The state’s 20-week ban went back into effect after that ruling. Since then, one of the three justices in favor of overturning the law — Justice Kaye Hearn — has retired due to the state’s mandatory 72-year age limit for justices.