South Carolina Abortion Clinic Regulations Upheld.

The abortion industry's nearly seven-year legal battle to keep from being regulated in South Carolina is finally ending. On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court refused for the second time to overturn an appeals court decision upholding the law.

"The state regulations are reasonable health and safety measures that do not infringe on anyone's constitutional rights," said Trey Walker, spokesman for pro-life South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster.

The 1995 law was proposed in response to the discovery of gruesome procedures in a North Charleston abortion clinic.

"In 1992, two employees revealed that clinic owner, who is now deceased, used a common kitchen sink disposal to grind up the bodies of aborted babies and flush these human remains into the public water system," Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, told NRL News.

Since the law did not then apply to first-trimester clinics, state officials could only investigate Floyd for violations of the Hazardous Waste Management Act. After a television network broadcast an expos of the clinic, women came forward with horror stories from other abortion mills in the state.

"Post-aborted women told of bloody sheets, bloody cots, and dirty bathrooms they encountered in various abortion `clinics,'" Gatling said. "One young woman testified she saw a dog in the procedure room."

Subsequently the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the regulations' constitutionality in August 2000. Six months later, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that decision to stand, and in September of 2001, the regulations went into effect.