Planned Parenthood sues to expand South Carolina abortion access under strict new ban

“…The conservative state’s all-male Supreme Court last month upheld a so-called “fetal heartbeat” law commonly understood to restrict access after about six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most women know they’re pregnant.

However, the court’s majority opinion noted that the medical definitions written by the Republican-dominated state Legislature gave unclear directions to doctors about when they can provide an abortion. In a footnote, Justice John Kittredge wrote that the court would “leave for another day” whether the language “refers to one period of time during a pregnancy or two separate periods of time.”

Attorneys for Planned Parenthood believe they have an answer. In a complaint filed Thursday, they wrote that the ban should be interpreted to take effect after approximately nine weeks under the statute’s language, because that’s when most of the main parts of the eventual heart have developed….”