If such activity was detected, the abortion could not move forward, except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the parent’s life.īut physicians and pro-abortion rights advocates have disputed terms like “fetal heartbeat”, saying the flickers captured in ultrasounds during the early weeks of pregnancy are not heartbeats but rather electrical activity in cells that will eventually become cardiac tissue. The act required patients seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound to detect what the law called a “fetal heartbeat”. “If this gets upheld by the courts, we will have saved thousands of lives in South Carolina every year,” said Shane Massey, the majority leader in the state Senate. South Carolina’s Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act was originally passed in February 2021, with Republicans hailing the bill as a “tremendous victory” for those they consider “unborn” children. With this opinion, the Court has clearly exceeded its authority,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Our State Supreme Court has found a right in our Constitution which was never intended by the people of South Carolina. Meanwhile, the Republican governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, blasted the decision as judicial overreach, saying the ruling ran contrary to the will of the voters in the largely red state.
