SC SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN STATE ABORTION LAW

On yesterday, 5 January 2023, the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the state law that banned abortions after six weeks. The vote was 3-2 with Justices Hearn, Beatty, and Few in the majority and Justices James and Kittredge in the minority. The majority opinion in the 147-page paper was written by Justice Kaye Hearn, the only woman on the bench, who channeled the late great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Essentially, the majority reasoned that the state law violated the right of privacy. The minority argued that privacy did not extend to a woman's reproductive rights [come on guys, if reproduction is not private, what is?]. 

Banning abortion after six weeks effectively removes the right to abortion since many women do not even know they are pregnant in that time period, let alone make arrangements to terminate. It is a matter of common sense.

With this, the SCSC struck a significant blow against the anti-abortion crusade across the south where state legislatures have rushed to end women's rights to control their own bodies. This is a large part of the culture was in contemporary America. This decision should have influence on other states. No doubt the socially and culturally reactionary SC state legislature will enact a new anti-abortion law but it will not be quite as draconian. We shall see.

Now, since the SCSC found sound reason and competency to rule sensibly on the abortion issue, let us hope they can keep up the good work and wind up the church case. They have been at it since 2015, seven and a half years! Along the way, they issued three different, and contradictory decisions (2017, April 2022, August 2022). If they are not embarrassed about this, they should be. Moreover, they have had three petitions before them for the past four months without a peep from the justices. Finality, please! 

Find HERE a news article about yesterday's decision.