[1/2] Protesters gather inside the South Carolina House as members debate a new near-total ban on abortion with no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest at the state legislature in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. August 30, 2022.
REUTERS/Sam Wolfe/FILE PHOTOJune 27 (Reuters) - South Carolina's highest court on Tuesday appeared open to upholding a new state law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, months after it blocked a similar ban.
That court ruled 3-2 in January that an earlier abortion law violated the right to privacy guaranteed by the state constitution.
Both the earlier law and the newer law sought to ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
Abortions are currently allowed in South Carolina through the first 22 weeks of pregnancy, one of the most permissive abortion laws in the region.
Persons:
Sam Wolfe, Justice Kaye Hearn, Hearn, Justice Garrison Hill, Catherine Humphreville, William Lambert, John Few, John Kittredge, Catherine, Brendan Pierson, Alexia Garamfalvi, Alistair Bell
Organizations:
Carolina House, REUTERS, Planned, South Carolina Supreme, South, South Carolina's Republican, Justice, Democrat, Thomson
Locations:
Columbia , South Carolina, U.S, South Carolina's, South Carolina, New York