Court Rules Georgia Heartbeat Law May Take Effect

Susan Berry, PhD

A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court ruled unanimously Wednesday that Georgia’s 2019 Heartbeat law that bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected may take effect.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled the Georgia law (HB 481), known as the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act may proceed to take effect after a federal judge blocked it in a decision that found the law violated the right to abortion created by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade in 1973.

On June 24, however, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization:

The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.

The LIFE Act also defines “person” to include an “unborn child,” providing:

… that all natural persons at any stage of development, including an unborn child at any stage of development who is carried in the womb, shall be included in state population based determinations

Chief Judge William Pryor of the Eleventh Circuit wrote the opinion, asserting “intervening Supreme Court precedent, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. … makes clear that no right to abortion exists under the Constitution, so Georgia may prohibit them. And the expanded definition of natural person is not vague on its face. We vacate the injunction, reverse the judgment in favor of the abortionists, and remand with instructions to enter judgment in favor of the state officials.”

Pryor continued that in the supplemental brief filed by the abortionists challenging the law, they “concede that Dobbs dooms their challenge to the Act’s prohibition of abortions after detectable fetal heartbeat.”

“They also concede that their arguments that other provisions of the Act are inseverable from the abortion prohibition are now irrelevant,” the chief judge added. “We agree.”

“As the Supreme Court explained in Dobbs, ‘[t]he Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision,’” Pryor wrote. “As a result, there is no such thing as a constitutional right to abortion, and ‘rational-basis review is the appropriate standard’ for challenges to abortion prohibitions.”

Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) responded to the court’s decision by exclaiming, “We are overjoyed that the court has paved the way for the implementation of Georgia’s LIFE Act.”

“Since taking office in 2019, our family has committed to serving Georgia in a way that cherishes and values each and every human being, and today’s decision by the 11th Circuit affirms our promise to protect life at all stages,” the governor said in his statement, continuing that George has been preparing for the time when Roe v. Wade might be overturned:

We have worked hard to increase supportive services for mothers and their children – before, during, and after birth. Working with the Georgia General Assembly, we have made significant strides on several fronts – such as expanding pregnancy and parental resources, extending health coverage to a full year for mothers after birth, improving our adoption system, and reforming foster care. And, the First Lady and our girls have tackled combating human trafficking head-on. We will continue this important work in the days and months to come.

Planned Parenthood Southeast Advocates responded to the court’s ruling stating the organization is “determined to protect and expand abortion access.”

Exceptions to Georgia’s LIFE Act are pregnancies resulting from rape and incest – for which a police report has been filed – and abortions that are considered necessary, according to “reasonable medical judgment,” to “avert the death of the pregnant woman” or “avert serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.”

“No such condition shall be deemed to exist if it is based on a diagnosis or claim of a mental or emotional condition of the pregnant woman or that the pregnant woman will purposefully engage in conduct which she intends to result in her death or in substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function,” the law states.

When the LIFE Act passed the state legislature, actress and left-wing activist Alyssa Milano organized a group of Georgia-based television and film workers who urged Kemp to veto the bill.

“We are going to do everything in our power to move our industry to a safer state for women if HB 481 becomes law,” Milano said, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After Kemp signed the LIFE Act into law, Milano called for a “sex strike.”

“Our reproductive rights are being erased,” she posted to Twitter. “Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike. Pass it on.”

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].

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