COLUMBIA, SC (Tuesday, May 3, 2022) – If Roe v. Wade is overturned, what does it mean for South Carolina? Will all abortions be outlawed as some reckless news reports have stated? The short answer is that South Carolina most likely will be able to enforce the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act that became law in February of 2021 and currently is blocked by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of
Appeals. The Heartbeat law outlaws abortion when the fetal heartbeat can be detected or six-weeks post fertilization.
The leaked draft opinion of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito indicates that
the abortion issue will be sent back to the states once the full court rules on the abortion case now before it called Dobbs. The Mississippi General Assembly outlawed abortion at 15 weeks and the federal court blocked the law from taking effect. Chief Justice John Roberts has called for an investigation into how the opinion became public. No U.S. Supreme Court opinion has ever been leaked before being formally published by the high
court.
South Carolina will be in a position to pass legislation that protects all babies
waiting to be born and their mothers. South Carolina Citizens for Life strongly supports banning all abortions so long as the legislation does not criminalize women or impose the death penalty for abortion.
South Carolina Citizens for Life does not support the death penalty as punishment
for violating pro-life laws. That principle was established by the General Assembly in 2006 with passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The law recognized the unborn child from fertilization as a human being who is the second and unique victim of crime when the mother is killed or injured during a criminal act of violence. The law states, “Notwithstanding any provision of this section...the death penalty must not be imposed for any offense prosecuted under this
section.”
Meanwhile 18 states would immediately protect the unborn if Roe is overturned and
22 would allow abortion.
According to the National Right to Life Committee, 18 states would protect unborn
children immediately in a post-Roe landscape through either existing pre-Roe laws, “trigger” laws that would take effecting following Roe’s reversal, or both. They are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Twenty-two states would allow abortion either through legislatively-enacted statue
or court ruling interpreting the state constitution to convey the right to abortion. These states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Click HERE to view the factsheet.
