Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 6, 2023 / 16:15 pm
Pro-life advocates suffered a setback this week when the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban on abortions after an ultrasound can detect a fetal heartbeat, which typically happens around six weeks of gestation.
The 3-2 decision Thursday found that the law violated the right to privacy in the state’s constitution.
“We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman’s right to pregnancy,” Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in the majority opinion.
“While this right is not absolute, and must be balanced against the state’s interests in protecting unborn life, this act, which severely limits — and in many cases completely forecloses — abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy and is therefore unconstitutional,” Hearn wrote.