Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: South Carolina’s Supreme Court has overturned a law prohibiting abortion after six weeks on Thursday, causing a major setback for abortion opponents in the conservative, southern state of the USA.
This is for the first time that a state top court has overturned such a law after the country’s Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion in June last year. The state court ruled that the state’s constitutional right to privacy extends to the decision of a woman to have an abortion.
The US top court had used identical reasoning in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case which protected the right of US women to have an abortion for nearly 50 years.
USA Supreme Court
But in a historic reversal, the top court ruled in June 2022 that the 1973 decision was wrong and the states were empowered to legislate as they deem fit. This is the first state top court decision that backs abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling, the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion rights, told AFP.
Since June, restrictive measures have been blocked on an emergency basis in many US states pending higher-level decisions. The South Carolina top court is the first to issue a final ruling in this regard.
The decision is likely to provide opportunities to women in nearby states such as Tennessee and Alabama who have no access to abortion. Women from other states can now travel to South Carolina for the purpose. However, this seems not the end of the legal battle.
The South Carolina Supreme Court, in its decision, held that the right to privacy can be limited until it is done in a “reasonable” way. This could allow states to introduce new curbs.
