‘We have prevailed’: Governor praises S.C. abortion ban ruling
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster proclaimed victory Wednesday morning after a state Supreme Court ruling upholding the state’s so-called “Fetal Heartbeat Bill.”
“Time and time again, we have defended the right to life in South Carolina, and time and time again, we have prevailed,” McMaster said in a statement. “Today’s ruling is another clear and decisive victory that will ensure the lives of countless unborn children remain protected and that South Carolina continues to lead the charge in defending the sanctity of life.”
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The ruling states that the high court, based on its interpretation of the 2023 law, bans abortion unless an exception applies, “when electrical impulses are first detectable as a ‘sound’ with diagnostic medical technology” and that the medical professional “observes those electrical impulses as a ‘steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart.’”
The justices said they do not frame the definition in of “a number of weeks,” they said the “biologically identifiable moment in time we hold is the ‘fetal heartbeat’ under the 2023 Act occurs in most instances at approximately six weeks of pregnancy.”
The law is designed to ban abortion whenever a fetal heartbeat is detected. Critics have sued, claiming that is usually at around six weeks, a point at which some women may not even realize they are pregnant.
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