COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – The governor of South Carolina on Thursday signed a bill banning most abortions, one of his top priorities since he took office more than four years ago. Planned Parenthood sued immediately, preventing the new law from coming into force.
The “South Carolina Heart Fetal Abortion Protection Act and similar to the abortion restriction laws that a dozen states have passed before. All are bound by the court. The federal law, which has priority on state legislation, currently allows abortion.
“There are many happy hearts beating in South Carolina right now,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster proclaimed during a state ceremony attended by lawmakers who made the proposal a reality.
Immediately after signing the invoice, a group of lawmakers and members of the public, standing hand in hand and wearing masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus, began chanting the words “Praise God” to the beat of “Amazing Grace.”
The House passed the bill by a 79-35 vote on Wednesday after hours of emotional speeches by supporters and opponents, and approved the measure on Thursday. Moments after Thursday’s vote, Planned Parenthood announced it was filing a lawsuit. South Carolina law, like that of other states that are being challenged, is “blatantly unconstitutional,” said Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
Proponents of restrictive abortion laws are trying to get the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes that, with three judges appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, the court could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision supporting abortion rights. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that abortion is legal until a fetus is viable outside the uterus, months after a heartbeat can be detected, Black noted.
State laws to restrict or ban abortion “are clearly absurd,” he said. “There is no other way to fix it.”
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson issued a statement Thursday that his office “will vigorously defend this law in the courts because there is nothing more important than protecting life.” He stood near McMaster while the governor signed the bill.
Opponents of abortion have pushed the ban for years, but it got stuck in a procedural hurdle in the Senate. Republicans won three seats in the Senate in the November election and the bill was labeled “Senate Bill No. 1.” showing it was the top priority.
“We’re about to do what I’ve been trying to do for 25 years: stop the abortion industry in South Carolina,” Republican Sen. Larry Grooms said moments before the governor signed the bill.
Democrats say Republicans wasted taxpayers’ money by passing a bill that everyone knew would be challenged in court. They also argue that there are more important issues that need their attention, such as COVID-19, health care, and education.
“We’re fed up with hypocrisy,” said Todd Rutherford, the house’s minority leader. Rutherford said Democrats have also had enough lawmakers across the aisle telling them they don’t care about life.
“It simply came to our notice then. We care about birth. … We care that people eat, that people don’t die because they can’t get vaccinated, ”he said.
The lawsuit by Planned Parenthood and The Center for Reproductive Rights argues that South Carolina’s new law “blatantly violates nearly five decades of precedent set in the Supreme Court.” The lawsuit says a high rate of women, especially African Americans, die during or immediately after childbirth in South Carolina. The ban on abortion would be more severe for low-income women, who could not travel to a nearby state where abortion is still allowed, the lawsuit says.
A hearing is scheduled for Friday afternoon to determine whether the law should be suspended while the lawsuit is being heard.
Like Democratic lawmakers, Black said the focus on abortion not only wastes money in fighting the established law, but also ignores a number of other important issues.
“If lawmakers are really interested in improving lives, we have a long list of priorities they can focus on,” he said.
South Carolina law requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for heartbeats in the fetus. If one is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest or the mother’s life is in danger.
The measure does not punish a pregnant woman for having obtained an illegal abortion, but the person who performed the abortion could be charged with a felony, sentenced to up to two years and fined $ 10,000 if convicted.
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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.