Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or restrictions and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access.

Claims about religious conscience are nothing new in debates about reproduction in the United States. Employers cited it in refusing to include contraception in employee insurance plans; anti-abortion doctors relied on conscience when trying to establish standing in a case to shut down access to mifepristone.

Attorneys for the state of South Carolina and Planned Parenthood returned to the state’s highest court Wednesday to argue how restrictive an existing heartbeat abortion ban should be.