South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously rules ‘heartbeat law’ protects at 6 weeks

(Liberty Counsel) [On May 14] the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state’s “Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” protects unborn children when a heartbeat is detected, which is usually at six weeks gestation.

After the state supreme court previously upheld the law’s constitutionality in August 2023, Planned Parenthood then challenged the law again arguing it should be a nine-week ban rather than a six-week ban because the heart is not fully formed before nine weeks. It argued that an unborn baby does not have a “heart” and cannot have a “fetal heartbeat” until all four chambers of the heart are formed at about nine weeks gestation. However, the Justices confirmed the law’s intent was to ban abortion when electrical impulses, often called a fetal heartbeat, are first detectable, which in most instances is at six weeks.

The disputed definition of “fetal heartbeat” reads, “cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.” Planned Parenthood suggested the definition wasn’t clear because medical practitioners do not use standardized terms when talking about cardiac development.

While the court did find that this definition is “ambiguous and does not convey a clear or definitive meaning,” the Justices chose to strictly examine the “plain meaning” of the language and no more. They did so in the context of the litany of medical and scientific knowledge presented in the case, such as journals from the American Pregnancy Association, which led to the South Carolina’s “fetal heartbeat” definition and to other states passing similar “heartbeat” laws at six weeks.

The Beating Heart in Slow Motion: 4 1/2 Weeks Pregnant

In the unanimous opinion, Justice John Cannon Few wrote, “Tracking the language of the 2023 Act, we hold the term ‘fetal heartbeat’ refers to ‘a biologically identifiable moment in time’ at which a medical professional may objectively determine to have occurred by the existence of the ‘cardiac activity’ of electrical impulses detectable as a ‘sound’ with diagnostic medical technology such as a transvaginal ultrasound device.”

The court referred to that “moment in time” as the point in time upon when a heartbeat is detected, which medical data suggests 95 percent of unborn children are likely to reach live birth after the heartbeat is detected.

“The only point in the progression of a pregnancy when cardiac activity goes from ‘cannot be detected’ to ‘detected’ is the point in time… when the [legislature] intended to ban most abortions,” the decision reads. “While we do not frame our holding today in the shorthand terms of a number of weeks, the biologically identifiable moment in time we hold is the ‘fetal heartbeat’ under the 2023 Act occurs in most instances at approximately six weeks of pregnancy.”

The court also noted that throughout all of its litigation against the South Carolina’s “fetal heartbeat” law, Planned Parenthood never said anything about a nine-week timeframe until now. In addition to stating that the law’s text was “reliable evidence” of legislative intent, the court also took into account how legislators referred to the law itself as a “six-week ban” at least 60 times during the legislative process.

The law’s plain meaning and universal reference as a “six-week ban” demonstrates “conclusively” that the legislature did not intend to allow abortions beyond six weeks as Planned Parenthood now argued, concluded Justice Few.

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Human life is a gift from our Creator. Every person, whether born or unborn, has a right to life. The goal of every state should be making the womb a safe place again.”

Editor’s Note: This press release was originally published at Liberty Counsel.