Federal Court Upholds Block on South Carolina's Fetal Heartbeat Bill

A federal court has upheld a decision temporarily blocking South Carolina's six-week abortion ban, as the state is one of many waiting to see what impact an upcoming Supreme Court ruling could have on abortion legislation.

The decision on Tuesday from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the bill unconstitutional. It was signed into law by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster last year and was challenged immediately in court by Planned Parenthood of the South Atlantic, according to The Post and Courier.

A ruling is expected by the Supreme Court sometime this summer in a case over a Mississippi law that bans all abortions after 15 weeks, and it is possible that the conservative-majority Court could significantly alter or entirely overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed the right of American women to choose to have an abortion.

"As the governor has said before, there is no more worthy investment of our time and energy than fighting to protect the right to life," a spokesperson for McMaster's office told Newsweek. "Governor McMaster will take this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary."

If Roe is altered or overturned, South Carolina is one of dozens of states that could introduce new restrictions or outright bans on abortion, including one bill that advanced through a South Carolina Senate subcommittee earlier this year that would allow for criminal charges akin to murder to be levied against doctors who perform abortions in the state.

"The court's decision means that—for now—our patients can continue to come to us, their trusted health care providers, to access abortion and other essential health services," Jenny Black, president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement following the ruling. "However, the U.S. Supreme Court could unravel today's victory by this summer, and South Carolina lawmakers are in a race to pass a complete ban on abortion."

"We applaud the court's decision today to protect South Carolinians from this unconstitutional abortion ban," Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement. "We've seen the devastating impacts of these extreme bans in places like Texas, where for nearly six months people have been unable to access abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and are forced to flee the state for care or remain pregnant. Despite today's important victory in South Carolina, we know our fight is far from over, as abortion access hangs by a thread across the country."

Earlier this month, Newsweek reported that in September 2021, the first month that Texas' abortion ban was allowed to go into effect, 2,200 procedures were reported in the state, a sharp drop from the first eight months of the year, which averaged between 4,200 and 5,600 reported per month. A Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas spokesperson told Newsweek that in the same month, Planned Parenthood clinics in neighboring states saw an increase of over 1,000 percent of patients from Texas ZIP codes coming to their facilities seeking abortions compared to September 2019 and 2020.

Update 2/23/22 2:30 p.m. EST: This story has been updated with a statement from Governor McMaster's office.