South Carolina Supreme Court Says State Constitution Includes Right to Abortion

On Thursday, the South Carolina Supreme Court determined in a 3-2 decision that the state’s constitution includes a right to abortion, thereby invalidating the ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, Just the News reports.

The justices found that the state law violated the constitutional provision which asserts 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.”

However, they also made it clear that the right to an abortion “was not absolute, and must be balanced against the State’s interest in protecting unborn life.”

In the ruling, Justice Kaye G. Hearn wrote, “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.”

“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,” Hearn went on to say.

Alan Wilson, the State Attorney General, shared his disappointment with the court’s ruling and announced that the state will continue to investigate its options.

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