Attorney General Alan Wilson, 12-State Coalition Files Brief to Protect Unborn Children

[COLUMBIA, S.C.] — November 30, 2017 South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined a 12-state effort in defending the right of states to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a crucial argument to protect the lives of unborn children.

The coalition’s brief leans upon a growing scientific consensus that a fetus is capable of experiencing pain at the 20-week threshold, if not before.

“The right to life is a gift from God and is first among the unalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence. Governments are created to protect those rights,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Each state’s citizens should be free to pass laws to protect their unborn children.”

The Supreme Court has long recognized that states have valid interests in regulating abortion upon the grounds of women’s health, protecting the dignity of human life and defending human life at all stages of development.

The brief, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, supports the constitutionality of North Carolina’s 20-week law as applied to abortions both before and after the point of viability.

South Carolina joined the West Virginia-led brief with attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.

You can read the brief here.