In a surprising development last week, the South Carolina Supreme Court stopped the state from enforcing a law banning abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. That law was enacted in 2021 in the run-up to the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade. Proponents of the law expected that in a post-Roe world it would end abortion in South Carolina.
But the 2021 law mysteriously included a provision that its enactment "must not be construed to repeal, by implication or otherwise, Section 44-41-20 [(the codification of Roe)] or any otherwise applicable provision of South Carolina law regulating or restricting abortion."
