The South Carolina Supreme Court on Aug. 17 temporarily blocked the state’s law banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is at about six weeks gestation.
South Carolina’s abortion ban was signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster in February 2021 but was blocked from being enforced soon after by an Obama-appointed federal judge.
The abortion ban did not come into effect until after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. For nearly 50 years, Roe had overturned state laws by prohibiting states from banning abortions prior to when the fetus is deemed “viable”—or potentially able to live outside its mother’s womb—deemed at around the second trimester of pregnancy at 24 weeks….