South Carolina abortion ban allowed as high court hears challenge

A South Carolina judge on Tuesday declined to block the state’s ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy while the state’s Supreme Court considers a challenge to it by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

Judge L. Casey Manning in Richland County made the decision after the Republican state government petitioned to have the case considered by the state’s top court immediately, rather than work its way through appeals. Manning requested the Supreme Court to take up the case. “The court’s refusal to block this cruel and unconstitutional law is another blow to South Carolinians’ reproductive freedom,” Planned Parenthood and the other plaintiffs – Greenville Women’s Clinic and the Center for Reproductive Rights – said in a joint statement.

“This is a monumental case and we argued to Judge Manning that it should be heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a joint statement. South Carolina passed a bill banning abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks, in February 2021. The law was blocked from going into effect at the time because of national right to abortion guaranteed by the Supreme Court in its 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.

However, a federal judge allowed the law to take effect shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe last month. About half of the states have or are expected to seek to ban or curtail abortions, fueling widespread litigation. A group of providers on Tuesday filed a new lawsuit in Georgia state court against that state’s fetal heartbeat abortion ban, which a federal court previously upheld. Also on Tuesday, a Louisiana judge allowed an order blocking the state’s abortion ban to remain in place while the state appeals it.

Georgia and Louisiana did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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