By Sarah Zagorski

Last week, the South Carolina Supreme Court struck down  a pro-life law that protected babies after six-weeks fetal age when a heartbeat is detected  because of a “right to privacy” found in their state’s constitution.

This was a huge loss for unborn babies, and the first time a state court in the south found a “right to abortion” due to so-called allowances in their state constitution. Unfortunately now, abortion will be permitted up until 20-weeks. It is especially disappointing because South Carolina is a pro-life state yet the state’s Supreme Court has superseded the will of the people in a 3-2 Supreme Court decision.

The Governor of South Carolina, Henry McMaster, promised to fight the decision shortly after the announcement. He said, “With this opinion, the Court has clearly exceeded its authority. The people have spoken through their elected representatives multiple times on this issue. I look forward to working with the General Assembly to correct this error.”

A 2014 Pew Research study showed that 51% of South Carolina citizens believed abortion should be illegal in almost all cases. 

In Louisiana, we would have been open to similar vulnerabilities if it were not for our 2020 Love Life Amendment (Louisiana Amendment #1) which ensured that a “right to abortion’ could not  be found in our state constitution.

Our Amendment passed by overwhelming, historic margins gaining 62% of the vote in our state. Now, that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, we know that passing Amendment #1 in 2020 was imperative for a pro-life future.

Without it, abortion groups definitely would have sued our pro-life laws and possibly won. We are thankful for the many volunteers who joined the Louisiana Pro-Life Amendment Coalition to help garner the vote, as well as for state Sen.. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe), and state Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton) who authored the amendment.