(Washington, D.C.): Yesterday morning, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued its opinion in Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. South Carolina, upholding the state’s heartbeat law that restricts abortion after six weeks. This was Planned Parenthood’s third legal challenge to the law at the South Carolina Supreme Court, and the second time the court has sided with the state to uphold its protections for life.
But yesterday’s decision came down to one fundamental question: “At what point in a woman’s pregnancy does a ‘fetal heartbeat’ occur, as that term is defined in the 2023 South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act?” While the biological definition is quite clear, as a fetal heartbeat can be detected via ultrasound, the court sought to clarify the statutory definition as it pertains to enforcing the law.
While the South Carolina Supreme Court determined the statutory language of “fetal heartbeat” to be ambiguous, it applied rules of statutory construction and legislative history, clearly defined as a “six-week” limit in previous litigation at the court. Planned Parenthood had attempted to push the bounds of the statute’s previous ambiguity when defining fetal heartbeat to mean a nine-week limit.
In the end, the court rejected Planned Parenthood’s attempts to apply the rule of lenity and canon of constitutional doubt and denied its claim that the current heartbeat law is unconstitutionally vague.
The state’s most life-protecting law still stands after numerous attacks by the pro-abortion movement to strike it down.
Carolyn McDonnell, Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Life, emphasized, “The pro-life movement continues to win in defending life-affirming laws in state courts following the Dobbs decision. This is a great victory not only for South Carolina, but for mothers and unborn children across the state.”
For more information or to arrange an interview with AUL, contact Gavin Oxley at press@aul.org or 202-987-3321.
Since 1971, Americans United for Life (AUL) has advanced the human right to life in culture, law, and policy by equipping advocates and lawmakers with the facts and strategies that change hearts and minds and protect human life. The first national pro-life organization in the country, AUL is a nonprofit, public-interest law and policy organization with a four-star rating from Charity Navigator.
