On Oct. 24, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the state’s ban on abortions after six weeks stands, reversing a prior ruling that it was null and void due to its passage before the Dobbs decision was released in 2022.
In its ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court sent the case back to the Fulton Superior Court to, “consider the merits of the challenges brought by the law’s opponents,” according to Atlanta News First.
This decision was after the Nov. 2022 decision by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney that deemed the law unconstitutional and in violation of U.S. Supreme Court precedent on the date when it was enacted.
The law, also known as House Bill 481, was considered what experts deemed a “trigger law”, which is a term for a law that was on the books, but unenforceable while Roe v. Wade was precedent. These trigger laws took effect after the overturn of Roe v. Wade as a result of the Dobbs decision, according to the New York Times.
Georgia’s LIFE Act, also known as the “heartbeat bill”, is a law passed in 2019 that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which is typically around the six-week mark. The law does include exceptions if there is a threat to the life of the mother, or if carrying the pregnancy to term will cause irreversible physical harm, according to CNN.
After it was signed, the American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would challenge the law, according to that same CNN article.
Section 2 of the bill’s text says, “Modern medical science, not available decades ago, demonstrates that unborn 44 children are a class of living, distinct persons and more expansive state recognition of 45 unborn children as persons did not exist when Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) and 46 Roe v. Wade (1973) established abortion related precedents.”
“It shall be the policy of the State of Georgia to recognize unborn children as natural 56 persons,” the bill says.
For more information about HB 481, you can read the bill’s full text on Georgia’s webpage.
