The
South Carolina House of Representatives
passed a
six-week abortion
ban along partisan lines late on Wednesday, and the bill is expected to be signed by Gov.
Henry McMaster
(R-SC) next week.
The measure is the latest in a wave of legislation in red states restricting abortion in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision in June 2022.
WHAT THE GOP WORK REQUIREMENT PROPOSAL WOULD REALLY DO
The measure,
Senate Bill 474
, passed the state Senate in February, 28 to 21. The amended House version of the bill passed 82 to 32 after Democratic members filed over
1,000
amendments to the original legislation.
State Representative John McCravy, a Republican and president of the House Family Caucus,
said
the bill “is the best pro-life bill we can pass in South Carolina at this moment in time … [N]ot only [will it] save thousands of lives, it will prevent South Carolina from becoming a destination state for abortion.”
The bill defines a fetal heartbeat as a “key medical predictor that an unborn child will reach live birth” and identifies “a compelling interest” for the state “in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the unborn child.”
S.B. 474 requires abortion providers to perform an ultrasound and document that the images and full findings of the ultrasound have been shown to the mother before the procedure is conducted. Providers who induce an abortion after a heartbeat has been detected by ultrasound can face up to $10,000 in fines and two years in prison.
The American Journal of Roentgenology
states
that a normal gestational heartbeat is detectable at five or six weeks.
The South Carolina Supreme Court
struck
down a six-week abortion ban in August 2022 after abortion providers filed an emergency motion for a temporary injunction to pause the legislation pending a debate on its constitutionality.
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Nineteen other states have passed measures restricting abortion at the state level since the Dobbs ruling. Most recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL)
signed
a heartbeat bill in April, preventing abortions after six weeks.
Anticipating the final vote on S.B. 474, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic
stated
, “The male-dominated legislature is hellbent on controlling the decisions of women, going as far as to ram through an abortion ban in the final days of the legislative session … This abortion ban is dangerous, and the people of South Carolina don’t want it in our state.”
