More than 75 women are expected to have abortions in the next three days, most of which would be banned under the new law.
South Carolina’s new law banning most abortions was suspended by a federal judge on Friday on its second day in effect.
Judge Mary Geiger Lewis has imposed a 14-day temporary restraining order on the law and will renew it until she can hold a more substantial hearing on March 9 to decide whether to prevent it from being applied until the Planned Parenthood process against South Carolina is completed.
Governor Henry McMaster signed the bill on Thursday, less than an hour after it was sent to him, but the national reproductive health services organization sued it before the governor even put the ink on paper.
The temporary restraining order was needed in part because more than 75 women are scheduled to have an abortion in the state in the next three days, and most of them would be banned under the new law, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights said in court papers .
BREAKING: A judge temporarily blocked SC’s 6-week abortion ban.
Abortion is legal in South Carolina. We will never stop fighting. #StopTheBanSC #scpol pic.twitter.com/UjV8YJP1Lo
– PP Atlântico Sul SC (@PPSATSC) February 19, 2021
The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Abortion Protection Act” is similar to the abortion restriction laws that a dozen states have passed. All have been prevented from taking effect and are currently tied in court. Federal law, which takes precedence over state law, currently allows abortion.
Planned Parenthood lawyers said South Carolina is “openly violating this law”.
The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office said in court documents filed Friday morning that Planned Parenthood cannot be sure that the law will be rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. With three judges appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, they said, the court could overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that supported abortion rights.
Opponents of abortion celebrated in the State House lobby outside the House chambers when members gave final approval of the bill on Thursday. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they sang “Praise be God” to the sound of “Amazing Grace” after the Republican governor unveiled the new law so they could see his signature, signed with eight different pens. The Republican Party tried for years to approve the ban, finally succeeding after the party won three seats in the Senate in 2020.
The law requires doctors to perform an ultrasound to check the fetus for a heartbeat, which can usually be detected about six weeks after conception. If detected, abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest or if the mother is in danger.
Opponents of the ban have said that many women do not know they are pregnant, especially if they are not trying to conceive. And with such an early deadline, the law gives women little time to consider whether to have an abortion.
“The act would force patients to rush to a health center for an abortion, even if they still did not feel confident in their decision,” wrote Katherine Farris, chief physician at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, in court documents.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, holding a bill that prohibits almost all abortions in the state after he sanctioned it on Thursday, February 18, 2021, in Columbia, South Carolina [Jeffrey Collins/AP Photo]
South Carolina has three clinics that offer abortion in its largest metropolitan areas – Charleston, Columbia and Greenville – and none of them perform abortions after the first trimester. Two of them miscarry only twice a week, according to the Planned Parenthood process.
The lawsuit says that a high rate of women, especially black Americans, die during or immediately after childbirth in South Carolina and the ban on abortion would fall more on low-income women, who could not travel to a nearby state where abortion is still it’s allowed.
The US Supreme Court overturned state laws that prevent abortion before the fetus can live outside the womb.
State attorneys are making a different point: a fetus’ heartbeat is an important milestone in pregnancy. They cite the new law, which states that “contemporary medical research” found that “less than 5% of all natural pregnancies end in spontaneous abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat”.
The new law does not punish pregnant women for having an illegal abortion, but the person who performs the procedure can be charged with a crime, sentenced to up to two years and a $ 10,000 fine if found guilty.