South Carolina Supreme Court temporarily blocks 6-week abortion ban

[In It to Win It]

WP

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked the state’s near-total abortion ban, which barred patients from terminating a pregnancy at around six weeks, after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. The ban took effect shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

In North Carolina, meanwhile, a federal judge tightened the state’s abortion restrictions, reinstating a ban on the procedure after 20 weeks.

In its unanimous order, the South Carolina court decided to uphold the pre-Dobbs “status quo” by temporarily enjoining South Carolina’s Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, which was passed in 2021. That law did not take effect until it was “triggered” when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in late June. Abortions have been banned in South Carolina at about six weeks since June 27.

Abortion access advocates in South Carolina cheered the court’s decision to allow abortions to resume while the legal challenge moves forward.

“We applaud the court’s decision to protect the people of South Carolina from this cruel law that interferes with a person’s private medical decision,” Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement. “For more than six weeks, patients have been forced to travel hundreds of miles for an abortion or suffer the life-altering consequences of forced pregnancy.”

[SouthernLiberal]

1. This is great news

Except for the sad truth that politicians in my state frequently ignore rulings of the state Supreme Court. This is especially true when they have the chance to deny someone their rights.