Current:Home > FinanceAbortion ban upheld by South Carolina Supreme Court in reversal of previous ruling -ProfitSphere Academy
Abortion ban upheld by South Carolina Supreme Court in reversal of previous ruling
View
Date:2025-04-23 13:46:04
South Carolina's new all-male Supreme Court reversed course on abortion Wednesday, upholding a law banning most such procedures except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy.
The continued erosion of legal abortion access across the U.S. South comes after Republican state lawmakers replaced the lone woman on the court, Justice Kaye Hearn, who reached the state's mandatory retirement age.
The 4-1 ruling departs from the court's own decision months earlier striking down a similar ban that the Republican-led legislature passed in 2021. The latest ban takes effect immediately.
Writing for the new majority, Justice John Kittredge acknowledged that the 2023 law also infringes on "a woman's right of privacy and bodily autonomy," but said the state Legislature reasonably determined this time around that those interests don't outweigh "the interest of the unborn child to live."
"As a Court, unless we can say that the balance struck by the Legislature was unreasonable as a matter of law, we must uphold the Act," Kittredge wrote.
Kittredge wrote that "we leave for another day" a determination on what the law's language means for when exactly during a pregnancy the ban should begin, likely forecasting another long court fight on that question.
Chief Justice Donald Beatty provided the lone dissent, arguing that the 2023 law is nearly identical, with definitions for terms including "fetal heartbeat" and "conception" that provide no clarity on when the ban begins, exposing doctors to criminal charges if law enforcement disagrees with their expertise.
The 2023 law restricts most abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, declaring that this happens about six weeks after a pregnant woman's last menstrual period. Lawmakers defined this as "the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac."
But Beatty wrote that at six weeks, the fetus doesn't exist yet — it's still an embryo — and the heart doesn't develop until later in a pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says it's inaccurate to call such "cardiac activity" a heartbeat.
"The terminology is medically and scientifically inaccurate. As such, it is the quintessential example of political gaslighting; attempting to manipulate public opinion and control the reproductive health decisions of women by distorting reality," Beatty wrote.
The Planned Parenthood South Atlantic clinic in Columbia had served only a "handful" of the roughly 30 patients scheduled for abortions Wednesday when the ruling came down, according to Dr. Katherine Farris, the group's chief medical officer. The center — one of three clinics in the state — has paused abortions while officials work to understand the ruling's implications.
Beatty warned that the majority's failure to address such a key question could lead to political retribution. He added that judicial independence and integrity were weakened by the court's decision to backpedal on its prior ruling.
Hearn wrote the majority's lead opinion in January, striking down the ban as a violation of the state constitution's right to privacy. She then reached the court's mandatory retirement age, enabling the GOP-led Legislature to put Gary Hill on what is now the nation's only state Supreme Court with an entirely male bench.
Republican lawmakers then crafted a new law to address Justice John Few's concern, expressed in the January ruling, that the Legislature had failed to take into account whether the restrictions were reasonable enough to infringe upon a woman's privacy rights.
The new law was opposed by the only five women in the state Senate, a bipartisan group who refer to themselves as the "Sister Senators."
"I cried this morning, actually, with — I feel like so much weight was on our shoulders, not just for South Carolina, but Florida, Georgia, the Southeast now," Republican Sen. Sandy Senn told CBS News in May.
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, sued again. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic's lawyer said during oral arguments this summer that both laws limited abortions at the same point in pregnancy and were equally unconstitutional.
The newly sworn Hill joined Wednesday's majority along with Few, who had previously voted to overturn the 2021 law. In a separate concurring opinion, Few wrote that the state constitution's right to privacy does not provide blanket protections against "reasonable" invasions.
The majority opinion found a key difference in the lawmakers' deletion of a reference to a pregnant woman having the right to make an "informed choice." The 2023 law expanded "the notion of choice to the period of time before fertilization, certainly before a couple passively learns of a pregnancy," Few wrote.
That change lengthens the window for couples to avoid unwanted pregnancies by promoting "active family planning." In addition, the new law provides insured contraceptives to "almost all couples" and places responsibility on sexually active couples to actively use pregnancy tests, Few wrote.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic's lawyer had noted during oral arguments that such analysis ignored the possibility for failures in testing and contraceptives.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that provided nationwide access to abortion, most GOP-controlled states have enacted or adopted abortion bans of some kind. All have been challenged in court.
Republican officials in South Carolina celebrated what Gov. Henry McMaster called "the culmination of years of hard work" to curtail abortion access. Republican legislative leaders scrambled at the end of the session to pass the new limits as the number of abortions increased rapidly under the state's reversion to a 22-week ban passed in 2016.
Republican South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said Wednesday that he anticipates future challenges based on the definition of cardiac activity. Still, he expects the new ruling will put the issue to rest next session.
That is, at least until 2024 elections possibly alter the composition of a state Senate that fell just shy several times this past year of clearing procedural hurdles to enact a near-total ban.
More court shakeups are also coming. Beatty must retire in 2024 because he, too, will reach the mandated retirement age of 72 for judges. Kittredge is the only judge who applied to replace him. The Legislature is expected to approve Kittredge and choose another new justice next year.
- In:
- South Carolina
- Roe v. Wade
- Abortion
veryGood! (5236)
Related
- Average rate on 30
- Look Hot and Stay Cool With Summer Essentials Picked by Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kandi Burruss
- Restaurant workers who lost homes in Maui fire strike a chord with those looking to help
- Troopers on leave after shooting suspect who lunged at them with knife, Maryland State Police say
- Bodycam footage shows high
- Drug dealer sentenced to 10 years in prison in overdose death of actor Michael K. Williams
- South Dakota Democratic Party ousts state chair who was accused of creating hostile work environment
- 3 works in translation tell tales of standing up to right wrongs
- Small twin
- Hope is hard to let go after Maui fire, as odds wane over reuniting with still-missing loved ones
Ranking
- Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
- All talk and, yes, action. Could conversations about climate change be a solution?
- Sweden beats Australia 2-0 to win another bronze medal at the Women’s World Cup
- School's starting — but many districts don't have enough bus drivers for their students
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- Patriots-Packers preseason game suspended after rookie Isaiah Bolden gets carted off
- Grand jury decides against charges in police shooting of NJ backhoe driver who damaged homes, cars
- Climate and change? Warm weather, cost of living driving Americans on the move, study shows
Recommendation
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
GM’s Cruise autonomous vehicle unit agrees to cut fleet in half after 2 crashes in San Francisco
Ron Cephas Jones Dead at 66: This Is Us Cast Pays Tribute to Late Costar
Watch: Harry Kane has assist, goal for Bayern Munich in Bundesliga debut
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
Hollywood studios offer counterproposal to screenwriters in effort to end strike
Southern California under first ever tropical storm watch, fixing USWNT: 5 Things podcast
Americans face more sticker shock at the pump as gas prices hit 10-month high. Here's why