South Carolina's top court upholds 'heartbeat' abortion ban just months after striking down a similar law

The highest court in South Carolina on Wednesday upheld a state law that bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is observed. This generally happens around six weeks of pregnancy. The ruling comes just months after the court blocked a similar ban.

The state supreme court's 4-1 ruling found that the state constitution's protection against "unreasonable invasions of privacy" did not include the right to abortion. Reuters reported that the state law was "within the zone of reasonable policy decisions rationally related to the State's interest in protecting the unborn."

"With this victory, we protect the lives of countless unborn children and reaffirm South Carolina's place as one of the most pro-life states in America," Governor Henry McMaster said.

The ruling comes after Planned Parenthood sued to challenge the law.

The highly contested bill was passed in May. The votes generally fell along party lines, save for five women in the state Senate — three Republicans, a Democrat, and one independent — all of whom opposed the bill.

The latest law that passed comes after the state Supreme Court voted 3-2 in January to block a previous abortion law. However, Justice Kaye Hearn, who was the author of the previous ruling, has since retired, per the report.

Hearn was replaced by Justice Garrison Hill, who voted to uphold the new law. Justice John Few switched his vote, suggesting that the new law addressed important holes in the old one.

However, Chief Justice Donald Beatty opposed the law, saying he believed the new law to be virtually the same as the previous one. He said the court should have followed its earlier finding.

"Today's result will surely weigh heavily upon the public and our state's medical professionals, in light of the threat of criminal penalties placed upon practitioners and the serious harm that could occur to women who could be denied reproductive health care during this uncertainty," Beatty wrote.

The ruling described the penalty for doctors choosing to carry out an abortion, saying: "Any person, except as permitted by this chapter, who provides, supplies, prescribes or administers any drug, medicine, prescription or substance to any woman or uses or employs any device, instrument or other means upon any woman, with the intent to produce an abortion shall be deemed guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of not less than two nor more than five years or fined not more than five thousand dollars, or both."

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