In Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. State of South Carolina, (SC Sup. Ct., May14, 2025), the South Carolina Supreme Court interpreted the state’s ban on abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected to mean the time at which:
electrical impulses are first detectable as a “sound” with diagnostic medical technology such as a transvaginal ultrasound device and the medical professional observes those electrical impulses as a “steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart” during any stage of the heart’s development “within the gestational sac.”
This point is generally at the end of six weeks of pregnancy. Planned Parenthood had argued for a different definition of “fetal heartbeat” that would have placed it approximately after nine weeks of pregnancy.
Justice Hill filed a concurring opinion focusing on the language of the 2023 Fetal Heartbeat Act and the Woman’s Right to Know Act, rather than on legislative history of the law.
AP reports on the decision. [Thanks to Thomas Rutledge for the lead.]