The South Carolina Supreme Court has decided to uphold the suspension so far in force of the ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, in a blow to conservatives, proclaiming privacy as a primary right.
The court thus becomes the first state high court to uphold abortion rights at the state level since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion last June. Since then, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming have presented alternatives to regulate the right to terminate a pregnancy within their own states.
In a verdict reached by a three to two vote, the court understands that while the state may limit a person’s right to privacy, «any limitation must be reasonable» and «give the woman sufficient time to determine that she is pregnant and take reasonable steps to terminate that pregnancy.»
The court, composed by an overwhelming majority, four to one, of conservative judges, has estimated that six weeks, the approximate time in which the fetus develops a heartbeat, «is simply not a reasonable period of time for those two things to occur,» according to the opinion reported by the news portal Politico.
On the other hand, the Idaho Supreme Court has ratified, also this past Thursday, the set of regulations that constitute the almost total ban on abortion in the state given the «legitimate interest» of the authorities in «protecting prenatal life at all stages of its development».
Under this verdict, also reached by a three to two vote, abortion will continue to be prohibited in Idaho except if necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman or in cases of rape and incest.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
