Background

The law, called the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, took effect in 2022 and prohibits abortions from the time cardiac activity is detected in an embryo, which is typically around six weeks, often before many people know they are pregnant. The law was slated to go into effect at 5 p.m. on Monday. Georgia also has a separate criminal law, which makes illegal abortions punishable by up to 10 years in prison for providers, but not for the people having abortions.

On Sept. 30, Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney overturned the law because he believed it violated the State Constitution, which he argued protected the rights of "a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices."

McBurney added in his ruling that, once a fetus "growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene."

As a result of the ruling, abortion procedures in Georgia were permitted up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, and many clinics in the state began offering medical and surgical abortions up to around 11 or 12 weeks, with one clinic — the Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta — offering the procedure until 22 weeks.

Supreme Court reinstates abortion ban

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the LIFE Act could take effect while the court considers an appeal from state Attorney General Chris Carr's office.

Six of the justices on the court agreed in full with the majority ruling, while another, Justice John J. Ellington, only agreed in part. One justice did not participate, and another was disqualified from participating in the case.

While the court allowed the LIFE Act to take effect, it left in place the lower court's block on a provision of the law that allowed prosecutors to broadly obtain the medical records of people who had abortions. The court did not provide any reasoning for leaving the lower court's block in place.

In a six-page dissent, Ellington wrote that the court should have suspended the six-week abortion ban while it considered the appeal, arguing that the case "should not be predetermined in the State's favor before the appeal is even docketed."

"The State should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution," Ellington wrote. "The 'status quo' that should be maintained is the state of the law before the challenged laws took effect."

Reaction

In a statement, Attorney General Carr (R) commended the court "for granting our request to allow the LIFE Act to once again take effect, and we will continue to defend the laws and the Constitution of the State of Georgia."

Clare Bartlett, executive director of the Georgia Life Alliance, said the Supreme Court's decision was "appropriate" and feared that, without it, women from other states would start coming to Georgia for surgical abortions.

"There's no right to privacy in the abortion process because there's another individual involved," Bartlett said, adding that "it goes back to protecting those who are the most vulnerable and can't speak for themselves."

Reproductive rights groups, however, spoke out against Monday's ruling.

Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, which is among the plaintiffs challenging the law, argued the Supreme Court had "sided with anti-abortion extremists."

"Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer," Simpson said in a statement. "Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health — all for the sake of power and control over our bodies."

Leaders of carafem, an abortion provider in Atlanta, said the provider had planned to expand its services following McBurney's ruling and expressed disappointment at the reinstatement of the law.

"Carafem will continue to offer abortion services following the letter of the law," said Melissa Grant, carafem's COO. "But we remain angry and disappointed and hope that eventually people will come back to a more sensible point of view on this issue that aligns with the people who need care."

Planned Parenthood Southeast spokesperson Jaylen Black said the ruling is "an egregious example of how far anti-abortion lawmakers and judges will go to strip Georgians of their fundamental rights."

Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Women's Health Center, said it's "cruel that our patients' ability to access the reproductive health care they need has been taken away yet again. This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians' lives, and our patients deserve better." (Morales, New York Times, 10/7; Habeshian, Axios, 10/7; Bynum, Associated Press, 10/7; Edelman, NBC News, 10/7)

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