South Carolina law prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Heart activity can be detected by ultrasound as early as the sixth week of pregnancy, but a lawsuit filed Monday in state circuit court argues that courts should interpret South Carolina law as follows: are doing.
9 weeks.
The law does not specify a precise week when abortions are prohibited, but instead prohibits abortions if a “fetal heartbeat” is detected. “Heartbeat” is defined as “heart activity, or steady, repetitive, rhythmic contractions The heart of the fetus inside the gestational sac. ”
The lawsuit filed by Taylor Shelton and Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s chief medical officer alleges: ambiguity Whether the state bans abortions at the point at which the earliest fetal electrical activity is detected (usually six weeks into pregnancy after the patient’s last menstrual period) or at the point at which abortions are prohibited. about.
shaped by the heartafter about 9 weeks of pregnancy.
But Republicans in the state Legislature say six weeks is the limit. standard resolution And that even family planning lawyers use that word to refer to the law.
Last summer, the South Carolina Supreme Court supported the ban After removing a similar version earlier this year. The justices then refused to grant the family planning system’s request to clarify at what stage of pregnancy an abortion can legally be performed.
A majority of the state Supreme Court upheld the ban and wrote that they were leaving. “See you another day.” Determining when specifically a fetal heartbeat can be detected and whether its definition refers to the point at which the fetal heart is formed.
According to Planned Parenthood, Shelton is the first named individual to file a lawsuit directly challenging abortion restrictions outside of the context of medical exceptions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022. be.
