The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the State Constitution includes a right to abortion, overturning the state's ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.
"We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman's right to privacy," wrote Justice Kaye G. Hearn. "While this right is not absolute, and must be balanced against the State's interest in protecting unborn life, this Act, which severely limits—and in many instances completely forecloses—abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman's right to privacy and is therefore unconstitutional."
File SC Court abortion decisionIn a 3-2 ruling, the justices determined that the state law violated a constitutional provision asserting that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures and unreasonable invasions of privacy shall not be violated." They did, however, add the caveat that the right to an abortion "was not absolute, and must be balanced against the State's interest in protecting unborn life."
