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Women’s rights are under attack. South Carolina’s Republican Governor Henry McMaster signed the South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act into law banning most abortions.
In response, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Greenville Women’s Clinic filed a lawsuit, blocking the bill from going into effect.
The bill requires physicians to check for a heartbeat. The procedure cannot be performed if a heartbeat is detected — unless the woman’s life is in danger or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
“SB 1 will cause immediate, irreparable harm, and the balance of equities and public interest weigh in favor of enjoining this blatantly unconstitutional law,” plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.
“This ban blatantly defies nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent protecting a person’s right to end pregnancy,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center of Reproductive Rights, said.
Mcmaster rejoiced after the bill was signed into law.
“This step we take today was long in coming and monumental in consequences,” McMaster said. “If there’s not a right to life, then what life is there? What rights exist, if not the elementary, fundamental, profound right to life?”
The law will likely be deemed unconstitutional in the District Court, as has happened in other states that passed similar laws, Professor Mary Ziegler, author of “Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v Wade to Present,” said.
The hearing on the temporary restraining order is scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m.
