WASHINGTON: A state judge has stopped the implementation of a law that would have seen most abortions be banned in South Carolina.
The bill outlaws abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant. But 24 hours later, Judge Clifton Newman stopped its implementation pending state Supreme Court review.
The majority of southern US states have limited abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022.
Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s Republican Governor, has filed an emergency motion requesting the state SC expedite the case. The vote to pass the law largely followed party lines but was opposed by the three Republican females in the state’s Senate.
The bill, known as the “Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act”, would restrict abortions in cases after early cardiac activity can be detected in a foetus or embryo – usually about six weeks into a pregnancy.
It allows for terminations up to 12 weeks in most cases of rape and incest and provides an exception for medical emergencies. Abortions are currently allowed through the state’s first 22 weeks of pregnancy.
