COLUMBIA (LifeSiteNews) — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday voted to uphold the state’s law banning abortions after a child’s heartbeat can be detected, usually about six weeks’ gestation. Heartbeat laws have been credited with sharply reducing the number of abortions committed in the states that enact them.
South Carolina’s highest court ruled in a 4-1 decision on August 23 that Senate Bill 474, the “Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act,” did not violate the state constitution and could take effect immediately. The move comes after a lower court blocked enforcement of the measure in late May.
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The abortion restriction bans most abortions after about six weeks’ gestation, with exceptions for rape or incest up to 12 weeks, as well as for “fatal fetal anomalies,” or to save the life of the mother. Protections for babies younger than six weeks are not provided. Pro-lifers point out that life begins at conception, the deliberate killing of a preborn baby is never medically necessary, and that preborn babies are not at fault for the conditions of their conception.
In the majority opinion, Justice John Kittredge wrote that “virtually every law operates in some manner to limit a person’s privacy,” and that a woman’s right to “privacy and bodily autonomy” does not trump “the interest of the unborn child to live.”
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who signed the measure into law in May, praised the Court’s “historic” decision in a Wednesday statement, declaring that the ruling “is the culmination of years of hard work and determination by so many in our state to ensure that the sanctity of life is protected.”
“With this victory, we protect the lives of countless unborn children and reaffirm South Carolina’s place as one of the most pro-life states in America,” the governor said.
The state’s attorney general Alan Wilson similarly hailed the decision as a “huge win in our efforts to protect the unborn and save innocent lives.”
The ruling in support of the law comes less than a year after the same Court ruled against a similar heartbeat law in a 3-2 decision in January.
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Live Action noted that the judge who wrote the majority opinion in the earlier ruling, Justice Kaye Hearn, “has since reached the court’s mandatory retirement age.”
Hearn was replaced on the bench by Justice Gary Hill, after which legislators drafted a new law “addressing Justice John Few’s concern from the January decision, which was that the legislature had not fully taken into account if the law had strong enough reasoning to infringe on a woman’s right to privacy,” the pro-life site noted.
Justice Few sided with the majority in the Wednesday decision.
Sam Orr, Policy and Communications director for South Carolina’s Republican Senate Majority Caucus, said the ruling upholds the state’s right to “enact a law to protect unborn children from abortion once a heartbeat is detectable.”
He argued that the “steadfast work of Senate Republicans on behalf of the most vulnerable has resulted in the birth of a new South Carolina; one that is no longer an abortion destination but a refuge for the unborn.”
“Our fight is not over. Today, we celebrate, and tomorrow, we continue striving to make South Carolina a free, safe, and beautiful home for all her citizens,” Orr said.