{"id":331403,"date":"2025-05-15T18:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T23:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=331403"},"modified":"2025-05-15T17:05:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:05:23","slug":"south-carolina-supreme-court-heartbeat-6-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/south-carolina-supreme-court-heartbeat-6-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously rules ‘heartbeat law’ protects at 6 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Liberty Counsel<\/a>) [On May 14] the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled<\/a> that the state\u2019s \u201cFetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act\u201d protects unborn children when a heartbeat is detected, which is usually at six weeks gestation.<\/p>\n

After the state supreme court previously upheld<\/a> the law\u2019s constitutionality in August 2023, Planned Parenthood then challenged the law again arguing it should be a nine-week ban rather than a six-week ban because the heart is not fully formed before nine weeks. It argued that an unborn baby does not have a \u201cheart\u201d and cannot have a \u201cfetal heartbeat\u201d until all four chambers of the heart are formed at about nine weeks gestation. However, the Justices confirmed the law\u2019s intent was to ban abortion when electrical impulses, often called a fetal heartbeat, are first detectable, which in most instances is at six weeks.<\/p>\n

The disputed definition of \u201cfetal heartbeat\u201d reads, \u201ccardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.\u201d\u00a0Planned Parenthood suggested the definition wasn\u2019t clear because medical practitioners do not use standardized terms when talking about cardiac development.<\/p>\n

While the court did find that this definition is \u201cambiguous and does not convey a clear or definitive meaning,\u201d the Justices chose to strictly examine the \u201cplain meaning\u201d of the language and no more. They did so in the context of the litany of medical and scientific knowledge presented in the case, such as journals from\u00a0the American Pregnancy Association, which led to the South Carolina\u2019s \u201cfetal heartbeat\u201d definition and to other states passing similar \u201cheartbeat\u201d laws at six weeks.<\/p>\n