COLUMBIA, S.C. — On the day the South Carolina General Assembly picked a new Supreme Court justice, the current members of the state’s highest court said they wouldn’t reconsider a previous ruling striking down a six-week abortion ban.
The decision mirrors the court’s 3-2 ruling in January tossing out the state’s fetal heartbeat law, which bans abortion after a heartbeat can be detected — usually around the six-week mark of a pregnancy — when most women don’t yet know they are pregnant, critics say.
Attorney General Alan Wilson, Gov. Henry McMaster, House Speaker Murrell Smith and Senate President Thomas Alexander, among others asked for the rehearing of the case.
