abortion

South Carolina's attorney general on Monday is asking the state's high court to reconsider its ruling striking down the state's six-week abortion ban. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed the rehearing request with the South Carolina Supreme Court on Monday. The court, in a 3-2 decision earlier this month, ruled that the 2021 law banning abortions when cardiac activity is detected, at about six weeks after conception, violated the state constitution's right to privacy. Wilson said he disagreed with the decision and argued that the framers of the privacy provision did not envision it as a right to abortion.

The State Supreme Court’s overturning of the state’s six-week, heartbeat abortion law earlier this month is still reverberating through the State House.This week Gov. Henry McMaster again criticized the court’s decision as did some conservative legislators, and a proposed new abortion law has already advanced in the House of Representatives.

An abortion ban is once more beginning to move through the South Carolina General Assembly. A House subcommittee on Thursday approved the first such ban to get a public hearing in the state this year. Sponsored by 43 House Republicans, the bill indicates that proponents of a ban have been undeterred by recent setbacks. A long special session last year failed to produce a new abortion restriction. In early January, the highest court in South Carolina had ruled a 2021 law violated the state's right to privacy. The effort comes as other state lawmakers across the country debate the issue for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections.

January 17, 2023 — We take a deeper look at the South Carolina Supreme Court's decision to invalidate the state's six-week abortion ban law and what the steps forward on the issue look like this session.

January 14, 2023 — A recap of Gov. Henry McMaster's inauguration for his third and final term; SC House Speaker Murrell Smith (R-Sumter) on his priorities for the legislative session; how Republican lawmakers could tackle the issue of abortion after a recent decision by the state Supreme Court; and more.

The South Carolina General Assembly has opened its session with its focus on abortion. Many lawmakers thought the issue was nearly settled during a bruising special session last year that failed to change the 2021 state law banning abortions when cardiac activity is detected at about six weeks after conception. But the state Supreme Court overturned that law last week.

he top state courts in conservative Idaho and South Carolina have gone in opposite directions on challenges to abortion bans. The contradictory decisions Thursday are part of a patchwork of policies that have sprung up since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that there is no federally protected right to abortion, pushing the issue to states. Across the country, advocates for abortion rights are making similar arguments to try to get restrictions and bans struck down. But differences in state constitutions and state justices can lead to different outcomes in those cases.

The South Carolina ban on abortions after cardiac activity is no more after the latest legal challenge to the state's 2021 law proved successful.

October 22, 2022 — We take an extended look at the oral arguments before the state Supreme Court this week over the six-week abortion law currently on the books.

South Carolina Supreme Court justices have grilled lawyers over the extent of the right to privacy in a case that could determine the scope of the state's abortion restrictions. Over 18 months of legal back and forth came to a head Wednesday when the justices heard arguments over whether the state constitution prohibits a 2021 ban on abortions after cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks. After being blocked by federal courts, the law took effect shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.