South Carolina Governor Signs New Pro-Life Bill After State Supreme Court Struck Down the Previous Law – UPDATE

Update: A judge has temporarily blocked the heartbeat law.

“We will continue fighting to protect the lives of the unborn in South Carolina and the constitutional law that protects them,” Gov. McMaster wrote. “I hope that the Supreme Court will take this matter up without delay.”

Let’s pray the new law really can “withstand a legal challenge and satisfy the majority of state Supreme Court justices.”

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When the South Carolina Supreme Court in January struck down the state’s 2021 law to ban abortion if the abortionist can detect a heart beat, usually at six weeks, pro-life lawmakers knew that wasn’t the end of it.

By a 3-2 vote, the court ruled that the law to protect unborn babies in the womb violated the state’s constitution. The document contains no implied or expressed right to privacy for women to kill unborn babies. The court acknowledged that the state constitution does not confer such a right but determined the law “which severely restricts and, in many cases, prohibits a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy” constitutes an “unreasonable invasion of privacy.”

After the defeat, the legislature pushed on and drafted another bill. Governor Henry McMaster signed that bill into law this week.

According to Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the new law was written “to withstand a legal challenge and satisfy the majority of state Supreme Court justices.”

Twenty-three states have pro-life heartbeat laws on the books.

“Every year, thousands more irreplaceable South Carolinians will be allowed to live and discover that unique purpose in this world which only they can fulfill,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.

Photo credit: La Shawn Barber, BCN Senior Editor

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