The South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled the state can continue banning abortions around six weeks after conception by agreeing it’s the earliest interpretation of when a fetal heartbeat begins.

According to The Hill, the 2023 Fetal Heartbeat Protection from Abortion Act bans abortions in the state as soon as a health care provider can detect “cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.”

🚨 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁 𝗨𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗨𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲’𝘀 𝟲-𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝗻

The 5–0 decision this week came in response to a challenge to the current state law from Planned Parenthood. pic.twitter.com/i3szerVEdZ

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) May 17, 2025

The Hill reports:

The law states that such cardiac activity occurs at around six weeks after conception, but Planned Parenthood challenged the law’s merit in court, arguing that it uses an alternative definition of when the fetal heart forms and when a heartbeat starts.

They argue that this type of “cardiac activity does not occur until all four chambers of the heart have formed” and that a “heartbeat” ban should start at around nine or 10 weeks after conception.

Justices noted in their ruling that the definition of a “fetal heartbeat” in the 2023 law is ambiguous and does not convey a “clear, definite meaning.”

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“Not one of the terms the General Assembly used in the definition-not ‘cardiac activity’ nor ‘steady,’ ‘repetitive,’ ‘rhythmic,’ ‘contraction,’ ‘fetal heart,’ nor even ‘gestational sac,’-is a precise medically defined term,” they wrote.

South Carolina Can Keep Protecting Babies From Abortions https://t.co/hx2meae00m pic.twitter.com/CxpSXoTMRh

— Stop Abortion Now (@LifeNewsToo) May 15, 2025

From the Associated Press:

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a nationwide right to abortion in 2022, most Republican-controlled states have begun enforcing new bans or restrictions while most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access.

Currently, 12 states enforce bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. South Carolina and three others prohibit abortions at or about six weeks into pregnancy — often before women realize they’re pregnant.

The fight over South Carolina’s abortion law is not over. A federal judge this month allowed to continue a lawsuit by five OB-GYN doctors who said they can’t properly treat patients because they fear they could be charged with crimes due to the vague definitions of heartbeat and the exceptions allowing abortions only when a fatal fetal anomaly exists or a woman’s life is at risk.

South Carolina’s law also allows abortions for up to 12 weeks after conception if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest.