Judge’s ruling freezing SC’s new abortion law attacks those who politicize courts

John Monk
·2 min read
To great fanfare from conservative lawmakers, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster on Feb. 18 signed the fetal heartbeat bill into law at the State House. The law is now being challenged in court.

A federal judge ruled Friday that a strict anti-abortion law passed last month by the S.C. General Assembly cannot take effect for the foreseeable future.

The injunction effectively prohibits the new law from going into effect until all appeals in the case are played out, including those to the U.S. Supreme Court — a process that could take months or years, said Malissa Burnette, an attorney for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, one of the plaintiffs which sought the injunction.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lewispreviously issued two temporary restraining orders to block the new law while parties to a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood South Atlantic filed briefs in the case.

Lewis’ ruling said the state’s new “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban, which critics say would prohibit nearly all abortions in the state were it to take effect, is clearly unconstitutional because it conflicts with nearly 50 years of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that allow abortions until the embryo is viable outside the womb, or until 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

However, nearly all abortions in South Carolina take place in the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

In a recent court hearing before Judge Lewis, a lawyer for State Attorney General Alan Wilson told the judge that although South Carolina’s new abortion ban law may have been considered unconstitutional in the past, the new conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court may constitute a new majority that would find South Carolina’s new law constitutional.

In her 22-page ruling, Lewis wrote a blistering critique aimed at the argument that just because the justices on the Supreme Court might change, past rulings on abortion would be overturned.

“We judges are not politicians in robes. Or, as Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts said: ‘We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them,’” Lewis wrote.

Planned Parenthood South Carolina and the Greenville Women’s Clinic, the state’s two main abortion providers, filed suit against State Attorney General Alan Wilson in late February to stop the new law from going into effect.

This story is developing and will be updated.