South Carolina's Abortion Ban Faces Legal Challenges

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed the "Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act" into law, which bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy. The law allows limited exceptions to save the mother's life when the fetus has a fatal anomaly that would prevent it from surviving outside the womb, and for victims of rape and incest. Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Greenville Women's Clinic, filed a lawsuit in Richland County, asking a court to temporarily block the legislation's enforcement and ultimately strike it down, arguing that the new law is "nearly identical" to the one the state Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutional in January and "an unreasonable invasion of privacy."