Ga. Supreme Court keeps 6-week abortion ban in place

ATLANTA, Ga. - The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a lower court ruling that the state’s restrictive abortion law was invalid, leaving limited access to abortions unchanged for now.

Tuesday’s ruling does not change abortion access in Georgia and may not be the last word on the state’s ban.

The high court ruling sent the case back to that court to consider the merits of the other challenges brought by the law’s opponents.

The ruling in effect upholds Georgia’s LIFE Act, which is also known as the “heartbeat bill.” It prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually at around a pregnancy’s six-week mark.

The state Supreme Court’s ruling focused on whether the legislation is viable since it was ed in 2019 when Roe v. Wade was still in effect and guaranteed a federal right to abortion.

READ THE RULING:

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said last November that the ban was “unequivocally unconstitutional” because it was enacted in 2019, when Roe v. Wade allowed abortions well past six weeks.

The state Supreme Court had previously allowed enforcement of the ban to resume while it considered an appeal of the lower court decision. The lower court judge has also not ruled on the merits of other arguments in a lawsuit challenging the ban.

McBurney had said the law was void from the start, and therefore, the measure did not become law when it was enacted and could not become law even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

State officials challenging that decision noted the Supreme Court’s finding that Roe v. Wade was an incorrect interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Constitution remained the same, Georgia’s ban was valid when it was enacted, they argued.

THE ‘HEARTBEAT’ LAW:

• Georgia’s law bans most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present. Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia are effectively banned at a point before many women know they are pregnant. The law includes exceptions for rape and incest, as long as a police report is filed, and allows for later abortions when the mother’s life is at risk or a serious medical condition renders a fetus unviable.

Georgia’s law was ed by state lawmakers and signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but had been blocked from taking effect until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had protected the right to an abortion for nearly 50 years. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Georgia to begin enforcing its abortion law just over three weeks after the high court’s decision in June 2022.

A legal consideration known as “void ab initio” dictates lawmakers can’t an unconstitutional law, knowingly or unknowingly, even if it later becomes constitutional. It’s the consideration Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney used to put a hold on the ban almost a year ago. The state Supreme Court reinstated the ban while the case worked its way through the legal system.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court said, “Today’s majority opinion further explains that Georgia courts must follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent pronouncement on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution when determining whether a statutory law violates that Constitution.”

“We are forever thankful for the political will shown by Georgia’s pro-life elected officials including Governor Brian Kemp, Senator Ed Setzler, Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson, and Senator Renee Unterman (ret.) who all fought for the LIFE Act’s age in 2019,” stated Claire Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., had this reaction:

“The state of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban — one of the most extreme in the nation — strips women of autonomy in the most personal health decisions. More than half of Georgia counties have no OB/GYN, and we have one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country. Georgia’s extreme abortion ban risks worsening our state’s women’s health crisis. I again call on Georgia’s state Legislature and the governor to repeal this extreme abortion ban.”

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