(From The Associated Press) - South Carolina's attorney general on Monday asked the state's high court to reconsider its ruling striking down the state’s six-week abortion ban.
State AG Alan Wilson filed a rehearing request with the South Carolina Supreme Court, which earlier this year in a 3 to 2 decision, ruled that the 2021 law banning abortions when cardiac activity is detected, about six weeks after conception, violated the state constitution’s right to privacy.
In a statement issued by the Attorney General's office Wilson wrote "We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and believe the intent of the South Carolina Constitution is clear. The framers of our privacy provision did not conceive this provision as creating a right to abortion."
The January court ruling striking down the ban was a significant victory for abortion rights’ advocates looking for safeguards in state constitutions to protect abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court stripped away federal protections by overturning Roe v. Wade..
The court ruling striking down the six-week ban has put the issue of abortion restrictions back before the South Carolina General Assembly.
