WASHINGTON – A judge in South Carolina on Friday blocked a state law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, one day after it went into effect.
Richland County Judge Clifton Newman made the decision to stay the rule, which went into effect Thursday, until the state Supreme Court reviews a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood, which calls the rule “unconstitutional.”
The law was implemented on Thursday after Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, gave the green light and passed through the state Congress.
Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of reproductive services in the country, filed a lawsuit along with other organizations shortly after the Governor signed the law, which includes some exceptions in cases of abnormalities in the fetus, risk to the mother’s health, or kidnapping. incest
“The court has given our patients relief from this dangerous abortion ban. Our doors remain open and we are here to provide medical care,” the regional director of the administration, Jenny Black, said in a statement.
In part, McMcaster wrote on Twitter that he was “fighting to save the lives of the unborn” in the state. “I hope the Supreme Court will promptly take up this case,” said the Republican.
In addition to the threats against mifepristone, others can be added against misoprostol, which is widely used in the United States.
This is not the first time that South Carolina has tried to restrict access to abortion: in January, the state Supreme Court struck down a law similar to the one that passed today, arguing that it violated the state’s right to privacy protected by the Constitution.
However, the judge who led that decision retired shortly after and was replaced by a man who has the support of the extreme wing of the Republican Party.
The measure is the latest in a series of abortion restrictions in Republican-controlled states, after the Supreme Court in June 2022 removed constitutional protections for medical termination of pregnancy.
South Carolina has recently approved a more moderate ban on abortion, after 12 weeks of pregnancy, which its authors see as a precedent to follow in view of the poor results of the Republicans in the mid-term elections last November, in which abortion was one of the main ones. campaign results.
