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South Carolina abortion ban with ‘fetal heartbeat’ definition creates confusion, doctors say

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South Carolina abortion ban with ‘fetal heartbeat’ definition creates confusion, doctors say


COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — When the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a ban on most abortions this week, the majority wrote that they were leaving “for another day” a decision on when, exactly, the “fetal heartbeat” limit begins during pregnancy. Doctors practicing under the strict law cannot similarly punt on that question.

Physicians say the statute’s unclear guidance is already chilling medical practice at the few abortion clinics that operate in the conservative state. With potential criminal charges hanging in the balance, most abortions are being halted as doctors wrestle with the murky legal definitions.

“These medical definitions they tried to put forward are legislative and put forward by people who don’t practice medicine,” said Dr. Dawn Bingham, chair of the South Carolina section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, or AGOC. “This language creates uncertainty among medical providers who may be unsure they’re legally allowed to terminate a pregnancy.”

South Carolina and Georgia are the only two states with such bans on the books. An Ohio court is weighing another one, and a six-week ban is pending in Florida.

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In South Carolina, the measure passed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly bans abortion after what it calls a “fetal heartbeat” is identified. The law defines that term as “cardiac activity, or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart, within the gestational sac.” Medical professionals can usually detect cardiac activity around six weeks of pregnancy, which is before most people know they are pregnant.

READ MORE: Backers blast revised ballot language for Ohio’s fall abortion amendment as misleading

That language is clinically inaccurate according to medical consensus, which holds that such “cardiac activity” is not a heartbeat and an embryo has not yet become a fetus at that stage. A 2013 University of Leeds study determined that the four clearly defined chambers in the heart that appear from the eighth week of pregnancy remain “a disorganized jumble of tissue” until around the 20th week.

South Carolina’s law requires that providers perform an ultrasound on any patient seeking an abortion, display the images and record a description of any present “fetal heartbeat.” But the justices left legally undecided the question of whether “cardiac activity” and the described “rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart” refer to the same point or two separate points in a pregnancy.

From a medical standpoint, the ACOG says that while electronic impulses signifying “cardiac activity” can be recognized early on, an actual heart is not detectable by ultrasound until roughly 17 to 20 weeks of gestational age.

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Charleston-based OB-GYN Jessica Tarleton said the presence of the word “or” between the terms in the law’s language creates two different definitions and is “vague.” It always takes lawyers some time to put together advice following any restrictions on abortion, she added.

“Defining a structure as a heart would put the definition later in pregnancy than earlier when you would see rhythmic contractions of some kind of cardiac structure,” she said.

In his dissent, South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Beatty questioned how doctors and their lawyers could comply with the law without “a determination of this key point.”

State Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a Republican, dismissed the idea that the definitions lack precise guidelines for medical professionals. He said the state has long required that doctors perform ultrasounds to provide an opportunity for patients to see the images before having an abortion.

“Now it just says if there is cardiac activity that is present on that ultrasound — if you can hear the heart beating — then you can’t perform that abortion,” Massey told reporters Wednesday.

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On Thursday, abortion providers filed a petition for a rehearing based on what they called the ambiguity arising from the definition of “fetal heartbeat.” While some South Carolinians will remain eligible for abortions under the law, Planned Parenthood attorney Catherine Humphreville predicts widespread confusion resulting from the ruling.

In the meantime, doctors have been cancelling abortion appointments.

A handful of the 30 or so people scheduled for abortions Wednesday had been served at a Planned Parenthood location in Columbia when the ruling was delivered. The remaining appointments got put on hold, according to Dr. Katherine Farris, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.

The Center for Reproductive Rights reported similar postponements at another clinic upstate, and Farris heard the same from colleagues in hospitals.

Abortion providers who violate the law could face felony charges carrying up to two years in prison and the loss of professional licenses. That threat has them interpreting these types of laws very conservatively, according to Tarleton, meaning many abortions have stopped altogether.

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“In the setting of very high penalties,” Farris said, “the only option for providers is to pause as we try to figure this out.”

Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report.



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South-Carolina

South Carolina high school football scores: Live updates, live streams (11/8/2024)

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South Carolina high school football scores: Live updates, live streams (11/8/2024)


The 2024 South Carolina high school football season is in high gear and SBLive Sports is the place to follow of the live scoring updates and finals.

Follow the action get the most to date scores by tracking the SBLive South Carolina High School Football Scoreboard. We will have in-game score updates and all of the final scores from every corner of the state. You can also search for full schedules and complete scores from all of your very favorite teams.

Here’s a guide to following all of the South Carolina high school football this week.

STATEWIDE SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD

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CLASS 5A SCORES | CLASS 4A SCORES

CLASS 3A SCORES | CLASS 2A SCORES

CLASS 1A SCORES

SCISA CLASS AAAA | SCISA CLASS AAA

SCISA CLASS AA | SCISA A

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2024 SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL SCHEDULES: FIND YOUR TEAM

Can’t make it to your favorite team’s game but still want to watch them live? You can watch dozens of South Carolina high school football games live on the NFHS Network:

WATCH LIVE ON NFHS NETWORK

We also invite you to visit the brand new South Carolina homepage on High School on SI, powered by SBLive Sports, for the latest news, highlights, analysis, scores, photos and information on South Carolina high school sports. Follow our live game coverage and read our feature stories, breaking news, the latest recruiting news, rankings and much more.

Follow SBLive South Carolina throughout the 2024 high school football season for Live Updates, the most up to date Schedules & Scores and complete coverage from the preseason through the state championships!

Be sure to Bookmark High School on SI for all of the latest high school football news.

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To get live updates on your phone – as well as follow your favorite teams and top games – you can download the SBLive Sports app: Download iPhone App | Download Android App

— Mitch Stephens | mitch@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi



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ESPN's College Football Playoff Predictor has updated again. Here's where South Carolina stands

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ESPN's College Football Playoff Predictor has updated again. Here's where South Carolina stands


ESPN.com’s College Football Playoff predictor isn’t perfect because it applies analytics to a situation that ultimately will be decided by a committee of humans. But it does provide a nice guide and discussion piece about which teams have the best chance to make this year’s College Football Playoff.

Because of that human element, the predictor has been updating twice each week, once on Sunday to account for Saturday’s games and again after the latest CFP rankings are released.

[More for subscribers: What latest rankings mean for South Carolina’s College Football Playoff chances]

While the Gamecocks won their game on Saturday and got a lot of help from the teams around them last week, the logjam of SEC teams ahead of them in Tuesday’s rankings is still limiting their upside at this time.

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With the committee putting South Carolina behind fellow three-loss SEC teams Alabama and Ole Miss, the predictor currently gives South Carolina a 20 percent chance of making the 12-team field, which is three percentage points lower than its chances in Sunday’s update.

The Gamecocks do, of course, have one more huge opportunity to pad their resume when they travel to Clemson this weekend to renew the annual rivalry in what may be the biggest game in the matchup’s history.

Beat the Tigers, who are currently No. 12 in the CFP Top 25, and South Carolina’s chances of making the playoff jump to 46 percent, according to the predictor.

While that’s just under a coin flip, it’s also 12 percentage points lower than it was in Sunday’s update.

South Carolina is still very much in the hunt but is going to need to win and play very well against Clemson and get more help around it.

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As a reminder, the CFP committee’s top 12 teams won’t correlate exactly with the 12-team field.

The CFP will consist of the top five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked at-large schools. The top four conference champions will receive the top four seeds and a first-round bye. The fifth conference champion will be seeded by its CFP ranking. If that ranking is outside of the top 12 it will be seeded 12th as the final team in the field.

The teams seeded 5 through 12 will fight it out in the first round with the winners advancing to the quarterfinal round to face the top four seeds.

The Gamecocks and Tigers are set for a noon showdown Saturday in Clemson.

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ESPN Analytics uses FPI to simulate the entire college football season 200,000 times. A committee model is applied to mimic College Football Playoff selections and seeding in order to generate a 12-team bracket for each simulation. The most likely CFP teams are provided for user selections. After user inputs, a likely bracket is generated and randomly simulated using FPI.



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The Verdict: South Carolina was built for this moment

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The Verdict: South Carolina was built for this moment


South Carolina football superfan Chris Paschal writes a weekly column during the season for GamecockCentral called “The Verdict.” Chris is a lawyer at Goings Law Firm in Columbia.

It will have been 44,592 days since Clemson students marched onto our campus with guns drawn when the Gamecocks take the field this Saturday in Death Valley.  Back in 1902, Clemson students were mad because of a cartoon that depicted a Gamecock whipping a Tiger.

They marched on our campus, ready to cause bodily harm, over a cartoon. For 44,592 days, Clemson students, fans, coaches, players, and administrators have done everything but declare war on South Carolina to ensure they remain the superior football program in the state. 

In 1902 there was more than just the cartoon. In 1902, Carolina beat Clemson.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution put it best following the game: the Clemson Tiger “was so successfully tamed this morning by Carolina. Its tail was twisted and twisted by the sturdy ‘pig skin pushers’ of Carolina, and after two hours and more of hard battle it gave up further fight, for time was called and it became as tame as the proverbial lamb.”

Carolina upset Clemson who at the time was led by John Heisman and was considered one of the great southern football powers. I think that too probably had a little something to do with the hostilities and hurt feelings coming from the Clemson students. 

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For the 121st time this Saturday, it will be Carolina and Clemson playing a football game against each other. And while we are past the days of armed invasions, you can’t help but think this Saturday’s showdown may be the most consequential in the series’ history.

There have certainly been big matchups in years past. I am not discounting 1987. I am not overlooking 1979. I understand 2011-2013 featured some great teams. But this coming Saturday, both Clemson and Carolina will still be alive and in contention to bring home a national title.

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The chances for both are not significant, but they are legitimate. For the first time in the entirety of the rivalry’s history, both Carolina and Clemson fans can hope that with a win over their hated rival they are one step closer to a playoff berth, which means one more step closer in the quest for a national championship. 

Hopefully, the players donning the garnet and black won’t think similar thoughts as they run out onto the field for what should be a cold but sunny day. This game to the players needs to be about one thing: beating a team they are better than.

In continuing the list of firsts, for the first time in roughly a decade, South Carolina will have what I consider to be the better football team when they kick the ball off against Clemson. I think we have a better defense, I think we have a better offensive line, I think we have skill position players that are just as good as Clemson’s (if not better), and I think we have the better quarterback.

But that is what I think. I am an attorney. I am a fan.  Clemson players won’t just roll over because I declared we have the better team. In fact, I expect this Dabo Swinney-led Clemson football team to fight like hell in an effort to keep their thumb still firmly on top of us. 

Like Clemson fans, I think Clemson football players and coaches also think it is their birthright to beat the Gamecocks. And why shouldn’t they?

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Clemson has won eight out of the last nine against Carolina. They have danced on our sidelines in the fourth quarter to Sandstorm, they have talked about how they think they will dominate us; they have talked about how we aren’t the real USC nor are we the real Carolina.

Underneath this façade of respect and admiration for this year’s Carolina team, Clemson fans (and I assume players) quietly assume 2024 will be just like most other recent years. They assume the moment will be too big, they assume the ghosts of years past will be too much, and they assume that by about 3:30 in the afternoon, Carolina will have once again not been physically or mentally strong enough to defeat Clemson. 

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But I also think these assumptions, which often manifest themself in a holier-than-thou arrogance, stem from a small shred of doubt and fear that has crept into their minds. Carolina fans had no idea Clemson was passing the Gamecocks as a football program until it was too late. From 2009-2013, Carolina won five straight over Clemson. They assumed Clemson and their bumpkin coach were finally second fiddle to the Gamecocks. They ignored Clemson’s recruiting successes, they explained away Clemson’s double-digit win seasons as illegitimate due to being in the ACC, and they watched Clemson build a juggernaut that had passed Carolina in a very real and lasting way by 2014. 

All it took was one whipping in 2014 for Carolina fans to realize that Clemson was now on a path that would destroy Gamecock hopes and dreams for many years to come. That feeling of “oh, crap” that Carolina fans felt in the few weeks leading up to the 2014 Clemson games, I wonder if Clemson fans are feeling that very same thing leading up to this Saturday’s game.

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Maybe the thought of Carolina passing Clemson as a program hasn’t even crossed their minds. Maybe it is absurd that I would mention that in this column. Maybe by the final snap on Saturday, Clemson will have soundly defeated Carolina and made me and so many hopeful Gamecock fans look foolish. 

Or maybe Harbor, Kennard, Stewart, Hemingway, Sanders, Knight, Emmanwori, Sellers, and so many other Gamecock stalwarts are capable of handling business and showing we do have the better team.

A win this weekend could be program defining. It at the very least could be season defining.

Is Shane Beamer and this Gamecock program always a bridesmaid but never the bride?  Or is this team going to let this state and this nation understand that this is a new type of Gamecock football program?

We won’t know until Saturday, but I will be in Clemson cheering Carolina on, with the hope – the belief – that we will see that latter. Let’s tame the tiger once again into the proverbial lamb.

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Forever to thee. 



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