However, the court upheld the six-week mark in a 5-0 ruling on Wednesday, saying the six-week mark is the language Planned Parenthood used in more than 300 previous court filings, and is what supporters and opponents have interpreted the law to mean since 2023.

“While Planned Parenthood now argues its doctors are unclear as to which point in time abortion is prohibited, it has previously stated the language from both the 2021 Act and the 2023 Act clearly prohibits abortion at approximately six weeks. Thus, it seems unlikely that abortion providers at Planned Parenthood have been left to ‘guess as to its meaning,’” the judges said in their opinion.

The law does not state the exact point in pregnancy when the ban can begin to be enforced, but it says abortions are prohibited after a heartbeat is detected. Exceptions to the law include rape or incest during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, medical emergencies, and fatal fetal anomalies.

The ban can be enforced “after an ultrasound can detect cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac,” according to the law.

Planned Parenthood argued that because the heart is not fully developed at that point, the ban should not take effect until the ninth week due to the language about the “repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart.”

However, in addition to pointing to evidence that Planned Parenthood previously believed the ban could take effect at six weeks, the South Carolina Supreme Court said everyone in the state legislature who has debated, backed, or criticized the law interpreted it to prohibit abortions around the six-week mark. 

“We could find not one instance during the entire 2023 legislative session in which anyone connected in any way to the General Assembly framed the Act as banning abortion after approximately nine weeks,” Associate Justice John Few said.

Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) celebrated the court’s ruling as a victory for “unborn children” in a statement. 

SOUTH CAROLINA EFFORT TO MIRROR TRUMP DEI BAN ADVANCES TO STATE SENATE

“Today’s ruling is another clear and decisive victory that will ensure the lives of countless unborn children remain protected and that South Carolina continues to lead the charge in defending the sanctity of life,” he said. 

Planned Parenthood said “justice did not prevail,” warning that “people have been forced to carry pregnancies against their will, suffered life-threatening infections, and died as a direct result of this abortion ban.”