South Carolina’s new all-male highest court on Wednesday reversed course on abortion rights, upholding the state’s strict six-week ban on the procedure.
The panel overrode an earlier decision in which the court decided a similar restriction was unconstitutional.
The court on Wednesday found that the state constitution’s protection against “unreasonable invasions of privacy” did not include a right to abortion, and that the state law was “within the zone of reasonable policy decisions rationally related to the state’s interest in protecting the unborn”.
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A judge in May had put a temporary halt to South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state supreme court could review the measure.
The ruling at the time, by Judge Clifton Newman, came just about 24 hours after the state governor, Henry McMaster, signed the bill, and meant South Carolina reverted back to a ban at about 20 weeks after fertilization.
The new ruling is a blow to reproductive rights campaigners. On Wednesday, McMaster hailed the decision, issuing a statement saying: “The supreme court’s ruling marks a historic moment in our state’s history and 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.”
It went on: “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 decision was 4-1, with the chief justice, Donald Beatty, in the minority.
“This decision is devastating not only because of the impact it will have on South Carolinians, but also because South Carolina is a critical state for access across the entire south-east region,” said Caroline Sacerdote, a staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights who helped bring the lawsuit against the new six-week ban.
“This morning, our clients had patients coming in from Texas, Lousisana, Mississippi, patients who had traveled overnight to access critical, essential health care.”
Because of Wednesday’s ruling, Sacerdote said providers had to turn away those patients to adhere to the six-week ban.
Greenville Women’s Clinic, one of just three abortion providers in South Carolina, had a full waiting room of patients seeking the procedure this morning, according to Sacerdote.
It is unclear how abortion rights supporters will battle the latest six-week ban in South Carolina.
During last year’s special legislative session on the original six-week ban, South Carolina Republican lawmakers continually refused to create a ballot measure that would ask voters if they support the right to abortion. Unlike states like Ohio and Michigan, South Carolina does not give the citizens the power to create their own ballot measures. Only the legislature can create a ballot measure on abortion.
Vicki Ringer, the director of…
2023-08-23 12:41:45
Link from www.theguardian.com