South Carolina gov: Abortion order 'oversteps' federal power

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's governor wants a new abortion law to take effect, arguing Wednesday that a judge's decision to put the whole measure — and not just the parts being challenged in court — on hold during a lawsuit “oversteps the bounds of federal judicial power.”

Gov. Henry McMaster's brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asks appellate judges to lift a lower court's injunction on the “ South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. ” The Republican signed the measure into law earlier this year.

The law requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a heartbeat in the fetus, which can typically be detected about six weeks after conception. If cardiac activity is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or the mother’s life was in danger.

Planned Parenthood attorneys sued immediately, and the entire law has been blocked from going into effect during the litigation. In his brief, attorneys for McMaster argued that decision represents “overreaching federal power to interfere with state law."

“This Court should not countenance such a judicial intrusion upon South Carolina’s legitimate sovereign interests in the form of an unnecessary nullification of state law,” attorneys for the state wrote. They argued that a section such as the requirement that an ultrasound be performed is “a standalone provision that survives any invalidation of another provision.”

McMaster, along with other defendants including state Attorney General Alan Wilson, also argue that the groups that sued don't have proper standing to challenge the law.

“The right to life is the most precious of rights and the most fragile," McMaster said in a statement Wednesday. "We must protect life at every...