South Carolina governor signs 20-week abortion ban News
South Carolina governor signs 20-week abortion ban

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley [official website] signed a bill [H 3114 materials] on Wednesday banning abortions at the 20-week mark, making it the seventeenth state to pass such a ban. The bill, passed [JURIST report] includes exceptions [Huffington Post report] only for protecting the mother’s health and a fetal anomaly, meaning “in reasonable medical judgment, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital or chromosomal anomaly that, with or without the provision of life-preserving treatment, would be incompatible with sustaining life after birth.” Although it does not provide exceptions for rape or incest, the bill follows along with the idea of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act [HR 36 materials], which claims that evidence exists showing unborn fetuses feel pain at the 20-week mark, although the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists still holds to a 2005 study showing the contrary [CNN report]. South Carolina’s law will also make it a misdemeanor for doctors to break the law, with possibilities of a fine and up to three years in prison.

Abortion remains controversial across the US, with state legislatures continuing to pass various regulations. Last week the Oklahoma Legislature approved a bill [JURIST report] that would criminalize performing abortions, although Governor Mary Fallin later vetoed the bill. Also last week the Louisiana state Senate approved a bill banning [JURIST report] dilation and evacuation abortion procedures. In March Utah became the first state to require doctors to administer anesthesia [JURIST report] to women receiving an abortion after 20 weeks. Also in March the US Supreme Court heard arguments [JURIST report] on a Texas law that would require abortion clinics to upgrade facilities to hospital-like standards and would require doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.