South Carolina Abortion Law Redo Request Supported by 21 States

An Alabama-led group of 21 states joined South Carolina in urging the full Fourth Circuit to rehear a case testing abortion providers’ ability to sue the state over a six-week limit on abortions.

A three-judge panel that affirmed the providers’ standing to sue should have allowed other provisions of the law to take effect, the states said in a friend of the court brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

South Carolina’s law banned abortions after cardiac activity was detected, which occurs at about six weeks’ gestation. It also added provisions that, for example, require ...