State Supreme Court restores ‘heartbeat law’ while review under way

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court temporarily reinstated the state’s law protecting preborn children from abortion upon detectable heartbeat while it considers the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling, which had overturned the law.

The Georgia Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act was signed by Governor Brian Kemp in 2019 but did not go into effect until the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. The law protects preborn children from abortion after a detectable heartbeat, which usually occurs around six weeks.

On September 30, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney halted the LIFE Act on the basis that it was “unconstitutional,” saying that a ‘right to abortion’ is included within the state constitution’s “protections for liberty and privacy.” With the LIFE Act repealed, abortions were allowed to resume up to 22 weeks gestation.

A spokeswoman for the National Abortion Federation told the New York Times that many abortion facilities in the state were able to “quickly resume” killing preborn children after McBurney’s ruling.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr immediately appealed McBurney’s decision and filed an emergency motion requesting the Supreme Court justices reinstate the Act while they consider the case. “We believe Georgia’s LIFE Act is fully constitutional,” said Kara Murray, a spokeswoman for Chris Carr, last week.

Carr called McBurney’s decision “barely veiled judicial policymaking.”

“There is nothing legally private about ending the life of an unborn child,” the state said in its court filing.

Clare Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, praised the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate the pro-life protections. “There’s no there’s no right to privacy in the abortion process because there’s another individual involved,” Bartlett said, adding, “It goes back to protecting those who are the most vulnerable and can’t speak for themselves.”

The Supreme Court’s decision marks the second time the court has reinstated the law after it was halted by McBurney; in the fall of 2022, he struck down the law, calling it “unequivocally unconstitutional” because it had been enacted before the fall of Roe. Carr appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled 6-1 in the state’s favor and reinstated the state’s pro-life protections.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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