The South Carolina supreme court has ruled that the state’s six-week ban on abortion is unconstitutional, under the right to privacy.
The 3-2 decision will mean the state’s six-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape and incest will be immediately and permanently struck down. Abortion will remain legal in South Carolina up until 22 weeks of pregnancy.
“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 privacy,” Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in her decision.
“While this right is not absolute, and must be balanced against the state’s interest in protecting unborn life, this Act – which severely limits – and in many instances completely forecloses – abortion, is an unreasonable restriction on a woman’s right to privacy and is therefore unconstitutional,” the decision read.
The law was written in 2021, before the federal constitutional right to abortion was dismantled by the US supreme court, and came into effect three days after that decision, on 27 June 2022.
The judgment also casts doubt on whether any future plans by the legislature to bring a total ban on abortion would be considered unconstitutional.
“Today’s decision means that the right to make deeply personal healthcare decisions will remain protected in South Carolina – an immense victory for South Carolinians and the entire region,” stated Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, one of the litigating groups in the case.
“We know that lawmakers will double down on their relentless efforts to restrict essential healthcare, but we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to restore abortion access across the country once and for all,” said Northup.
“This is a monumental victory in the movement to protect legal abortion in the south,” Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, added. Planned Parenthood were the lead litigators in the case.
During legal arguments in October, justices had debated whether the six-week ban allowed individuals to practice their rights to make informed medical decisions.
In the decision today, Chief Justice Donald Beatty ruled that the time frame was not reasonable.
“Six weeks is, quite simply, not a reasonable period of time … and therefore the act violates our constitution’s prohibition against unreasonable invasions of privacy,” reads the conclusion.