South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster shows that the bill has just signed into law the law that prohibits almost all abortions in the state on February 18, 2021, in Columbia, SC. On the same day, Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the measure from taking effect. The state council passed the South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Abortion Protection Act in a 79-35 vote on Wednesday and gave her a final procedural vote on Thursday before sending it to McMaster. On Friday, a US District Court judge declared unconstitutionality and imposed an injunction while it goes through the legal system. | Jeffrey Collins / AP
The draconian South Carolina Senate Bill 1, the “Fetal Heartbeat and Abortion Protection Act,” hit its first legal hurdle on Friday, when U.S. District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, issued a two-week temporary restraining order while the case is pending in the courts.
Issued just a day after Governor Henry McMaster signed the bill, the six-page warrant referred to the bill as “totally unconstitutional” and is therefore no longer in effect while the longer legal proceedings begin, something that lawyers say it could take years.
The next hearing on a broader injunction will be held on March 9.
Local activist and Democratic 2022 government candidate Gary Votour replied, “Well, now. This was a very short victory lap for [Gov.] Henry McMaster. This will not prevent you from using it to raise campaign funds. I suspect that’s why he signed it. After all, he is a lawyer and needed to know that this was unconstitutional ”.
The bill sought to ban abortion as soon as cardiac activity could be detected by ultrasound. This would leave a window of five to six weeks to legally terminate the pregnancy, which usually occurs before the patient knows that she is pregnant. According to DHEC 2019 data, about 55% of abortions performed in South Carolina occurred after six weeks of gestation.
Doctors who perform the procedure after this period will face criminal charges. The only exceptions allowed were in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life was in danger, but this would require the names of patients to be provided to local authorities. South Atlantic Planned Parenthood called this “a flagrant violation of the rights of a survivor”.
Opponents accused the Republican Party of South Carolina of using this project as a diversionary tactic. Planned Parenthood said in a statement:
“SB1 was the first bill introduced by the legislative leadership this year. At a time when thousands of South Carolinaians are unemployed, without health insurance and more than 8,000 died of COVID-19, anti-abortion lawmakers, including Governor McMaster, decided that their priority was to insert the government into private medical decisions and control a person’s body. “
Votour echoed that feeling.
“Pregnancy-related mortality rates are 2.6 times higher for black women in SC. Instead of doing anything about it, like expanding Medicaid or creating rural health centers, the Republican Party of South Carolina focused on an unconstitutional ban on abortion. Already being challenged for planned paternity, the legal battle will be financed by our tax dollars and will probably last for years. “
Proponents of the project are pinning their hopes on changing the composition of the Supreme Court. South Carolina Deputy Attorney General Emory Smith argued that the law is in “a state of change” and that a new Supreme Court could overturn the record Roe v. Wade decision.
Three of the current judges are appointed by Trump.
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