SW News: A hotly-debated bill that prohibits most abortions after the sixth week of gestation in South Carolina was passed by lawmakers on Tuesday, May 23. It is around the sixth week of pregnancy that a heartbeat is detected in a fetus.
Republican Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina is slated to ink the bill into law. The legislation was mostly passed along party lines. However, five women lawmakers—three Republicans, one Democrat and an independent—voiced their opposition to the bill.

The fetal heartbeat bill passed by lawmakers is an altered version of an earlier anti-abortion legislation that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of South Carolina earlier this year. It permits the termination of pregnancy up to 12 weeks of gestation in cases of rape and incest as well as an exception when there is a medical emergency.

If the new bill is able to tide over possible legal hurdles, then it will prohibit the flow of pregnant women from nearby states in the southern part of the United States with strict abortion laws seeking the termination of pregnancy. According to Republican Senator Shane Massey, the new bill is one step forward to bring South Carolina in line with other neighboring states. He said the amended legislation also remedies the errors in the previous version of the bill that made the state apex court strike it down as unconstitutional.

While pro-lifers have hailed the new legislation, pro-choice outfits have promised to seek legal ways to block its enforcement. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said on Twitter, “We will see you in court” after the debate on Tuesday. With the inclusion of a conservative member in the state Supreme Court, it remains fuzzy as to whether the top court will overturn the bill this time too.