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South Carolina law – the first such restriction passed in 2021 as anti-abortion advocates seek to limit access to the procedure – would block the procedure upon detection of a fetal heartbeat , which can occur as early as six weeks of pregnancy. and before many people know they are pregnant.
U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis has issued a temporary restraining order for the law until March 5. South Carolina’s law now joins nine other so-called pregnancy bans – which ban abortions beyond a certain stage of pregnancy – passed in 2019, none of which went into effect.
Lewis wrote that abortion providers have shown “a substantial likelihood of success” in their arguments that the law violates the rights of abortion seekers, calling the law “a patently unconstitutional ban on precautionary abortions.”
Abortion rights advocates were quick to voice their opposition to the new law, which the South Carolina General Assembly passed on Wednesday and finalized on Thursday.
Before it was signed by the Republican governor of South Carolina on Thursday, Henry McMaster, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the measure. Lawyers for the groups have asked a federal judge to block the law on behalf of abortion providers Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Greenville Women’s Clinic, which operate South Carolina’s only three abortion clinics, court documents show.
“This court ruling will provide a moment of temporary relief for Southern Carolinians,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “But make no mistake: Politicians across the country have made it clear that they won’t stop until access to abortion is completely out of reach.”
As of Friday morning, at least 75 patients had scheduled abortion appointments at Planned Parenthood and the Greenville Women’s Clinic, according to Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic spokeswoman Molly Rivera told CNN they stopped performing abortions as soon as the governor signed the bill.
“Access has been restored,” Rivera said after the judge’s order. “Abortion services can resume.”
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who was named in the lawsuit, called the blockade “only a first step, but the legal fight is only just beginning. We look forward to continuing to argue why this law should be valid. “
“We believe the Heartbeat Act is constitutional and deserves vigorous defense in the United States Supreme Court if necessary,” Wilson said in a statement. “Every generation has the right and the duty to revisit issues as important as this one.”
The law includes exceptions for cases of rape, incest – both of which doctors must report to the county sheriff within 24 hours – medical emergencies and fetal abnormalities. It also requires abortion service providers to perform an ultrasound and display the image to the pregnant person, and to “ask the woman if she would like to hear the heartbeat” if it is audible – a medically unnecessary requirement. that the Supreme Court has previously authorized to take. effect in other states.
CNN’s Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
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