The South Carolina House has just passed a pro-life heartbeat bill, which would prohibit most abortions after the point at which a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy. Seventy-eight Republican representatives and one Democratic representative voted for the bill, while 35 Democrats opposed it, and ten representatives did not vote.
The measure passed the South Carolina Senate late last month and, after another procedural vote, will head to the desk of Governor Henry McMaster later this week for his signature. The Republican governor has already indicated his support for the legislation and is expected to sign it into law.
The bill’s enactment will make South Carolina one of about a dozen states to prohibit abortion after the fetal heartbeat begins. In 2019, several pro-life states including Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee all enacted forms of a heartbeat bill, drawing the criticism of abortion-rights advocates across the country.
Unfortunately, because of current abortion jurisprudence, nearly all of those laws — along with those in other states passed before 2019 — have been struck down in court. In legal challenges brought by abortion-advocacy organizations, judges have ruled that heartbeat bills are an unconstitutional restriction on the right to abortion as articulated in Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court cases.
Planned Parenthood, other abortion providers, and legal groups that support abortion have said they will sue South Carolina over the heartbeat bill once it becomes law. Unless and until the Court reconsiders abortion and the right of state governments to regulate it, judges will continue to block these bills each time they take effect.